The Patience of Kings
by Alveric
Summary: Faced with an intractable roadblock in their quest to learn more about the Alteran's legacy in Avalon, Sam, Cameron and SG-1 return to Earth with a plan no one likes, only to face a threat targeting one of their own. Sequel to 'A Sword in Agate' Cam/Sam
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Chapter 1**

O'Reardon's Pub, Washington D.C., September 1993

Sam walked into the Irish pub in Crystal City and looked around, scanning the crowd for a face she hadn't seen for a year. She was still surprised she'd received a call from him the week before, telling her he was flying back home for a lengthy leave of absence and asking to meet with her before he headed on to Kansas. She'd accepted of course, seeing him might be a little hard, but she'd never give up on a chance to sit and talk with him. She smoothed down the skirt of her dress blues and played idly with her cover until she finally saw a familiar mop of dark brown hair. She smiled and began to thread her way through the tables and chairs in the bar. She reached for his shoulder, but paused, hesitant of the contact. Instead she moved forward to sit down across from him with a bright smile.

"Hey Cam." she said happily only to blink in surprise when she saw his face. It was dark and brooding. There were circles around his eyes which only now glanced up to meet hers. His mouth, which was usually so quick to break out into a grin, remained tense and downturned. She frowned slightly.

"Hey Sam." he greeted her and a small smile, which was obviously forced, slipped over his lips for an instant without reaching his eyes. "How are you? You look good." He sighed slightly. "I've missed you." Her breath caught in her throat for a moment as he spoke. It was just the simple sincerity in his words which left her heart beating a little faster. He looked away to the bar and raised a hand which received a called over acknowledgement. "I doubt you want a beer this early, would you like some juice? Something to eat?" She tilted her head slightly and glanced down at the table at the drink in his hand. A fifth of bourbon. She frowned again. He was always so good about these things usually.

"Yeah, an apple juice will be great." She looked up when a waitress arrived and Cam ordered her juice for her. "I'll have a club sandwich, please." she added and the young woman made a note. Cam shook his head when she turned to him enquiringly and then walked off. "Cam, are you alright?" she asked the question that had been running through her mind ever since she saw his face. He didn't meet her gaze, just sighed deeply and stared down into the brown liquid in front of him.

"Sam, I have something to tell you." He ran a hand over his chin and the grin which passed over his face left her feeling scared instead of relieved. "This isn't really the place though." He looked around at the crowded bar and his jaw clenched slightly. "I'll tell you in a little-" He stopped and looked up as a shadow passed over her and she felt a hand close down on her shoulder.

"Sam, honey, what are you doing here?" She looked up in surprise to see Jonas staring down at her with a little furrow in his brow. She was wondering the same thing of him, but she still smiled.

"Jonas, I told you last week that I was meeting a friend here who was stopping over in D.C. for a couple of days on his way home." She motioned to Cam whose face had gone still and sharp. She narrowed her eyes slightly at what was unmistakably dislike in his eyes as he looked up at her boyfriend. "Jonas, this is Captain Cameron Mitchell. Cameron this is Captain-"

"I've met Captain Hanson." he interjected in a quiet voice which had an edge of steel in it. She hadn't known they'd met before. She blinked in surprise and looked up.

"Yes, we met in the Gulf last year. I believe you were already here at the Pentagon." Hanson explained though he said nothing more. "You know Mitchell well, then?"

"Yes, since the Academy. He's a very dear friend." She wasn't that surprised when Jonas tensed as she said the words, she'd noticed he had a bit of a jealous side before. However, she was surprised when she saw Cameron tensing at her words. When she glanced over she saw his eyes had moved from Jonas' face to just off her shoulder, to his hand where it still rested over her Captain's bars.

"Right. Can I have a quick word, Samantha?" he squeezed her shoulder slightly and moved off. She frowned at how he'd emphasized the request. As if it wasn't one. She looked over at Cam and he tilted his head as a wash of emotion passed across his eyes for a moment. He just leaned back in the booth and she stood up, apologising. She walked over to Hanson who was standing near the bar. She looked around and could see no one else she recognised. She wondered why he was here.

"What is it, Jonas? I'm a bit busy." She turned her head slightly towards the table to indicate Cameron. "I haven't seen Cam in a year and there's something he wants to talk to me about." He looked over her shoulder and she saw his lips draw tight for an instant.

"It's about that." He looked at her with serious eyes. "How well _do_ you know Mitchell." She frowned heavily.

"Like I said, we're very good friends. We were a team at the Academy, then he was my wing leader during the war. He's watched my back for years." She tilted her head slightly when Jonas grunted and looked at Cameron over her shoulder again.

"I'm just concerned. When they come to give you your gold leaves I don't think his should be a name you're associated with." he said and she glared at him. "Remember, an astronaut needs to have a spotless record."

"Jonas," she said with a steely tone, "no one has supported me or my dream more resolutely than Cameron." He frowned at her with his own glare.

"I'm just saying you should be careful." Again his eyes moved over her shoulder. "Scuttlebutt is that this 'leave of absence' he's taking is forced. And that it could become permanent, if you know what I mean." She looked over her shoulder at Cam, remembering the dark circles and haggard look when she came in. What was happening with him? "Even if he does come back they say it'll be somewhere out of the way. Okinawa."

"What are you talking about, Jonas?" she asked seriously. He shrugged.

"I'm just telling you what I heard." he offered with a gentle look. "Just be careful, okay? You haven't seen him in a year, right?" He pushed a strand of her hair over her ear. "I think you might find he's changed since then." He looked over her shoulder again. "Now go on, I'll be here if you need me." He turned to the barman to place an order and she furrowed her brow momentarily, but decided to ignore that and turned to walk back to the table. Sitting down she noticed her sandwich and juice had arrived. She glanced apologetically at Cam.

"Sorry about that. Jonas can be overprotective." She watched the same look from before pass over Cam's face before he looked down at the table. "Why don't we talk about what you want to talk to me about?" He shook his head.

"You and Hanson are..." he trailed off and she paused with the sandwich part way to her mouth.

"We're dating." she said softly. She found she couldn't say it any louder than that and keep her voice under control. Cam's shoulders seemed to sag slightly and when he looked up his eyes were roiling turbulently. "Cam?"

"I shouldn't have come." he whispered and stuck his hand in his pocket to grab his wallet. "Sorry, Sam, I... I shouldn't have come." He dug out a ten dollar note and put his glass over the top of it while moving to leave. "It's on me."

"Cam, what are you doing?" She reached out to put a hand on his arm only for him to flinch away from her before freezing and looking her way for a moment. He began to stand up again. "Cam?"

"I'll talk to you later, Sam." he said in a broken voice and started moving away. She left her sandwich at the table and began to move after Cam only for a hand to close around her arm.

"Let him go, Samantha." Jonas said and she whirled on him angrily.

"Let go, Jonas." She ripped her arm from his grasp and he raised both of his up in surrender. She began to move again and looked both ways up the street when she got outside. She spotted him moving through the crowd heading south and gave chase. When she caught up to him she grabbed his wrist and turned him around to face her. He turned his head aside.

"Cameron, what's wrong?" she asked as she let go of his hand and placed hers gently on his chest. She could feel his heart beating like crazy under his dress blues. She lifted it up and used a gentle touch of her fingers to turn his face her way. "You can talk to me." His brows tightened and he blinked rapidly when her fingers drifted across his skin. Her breath hitched at seeing what was unmistakably pain in his eyes.

"I can't... see you and... him. I can't..." He looked away again when she started to frown. She had chosen to give up her stupid one-sided crush after she came back and now he was... Her jaw clenched and she looked down for a moment.

"Cam, he's a good man-" she began only to stop at his barking laughter. Ugly laughter she had never heard from him before.

"Jonas Hanson is a douchebag!" he said manically. "A controlling, manipulative egomaniac." He gritted his teeth and looked away. She knew it was because her anger must be showing plainly on her face. She was livid. When he looked back at her he'd set his features as stone. "He's the worst officer I've ever had the misfortune to fly with." She slapped him across the face. He blinked several times, then turned back to her. "And you're worth a hundred of him." he said shakily in a broken voice. He shook his head. "A thousand." He turned away and began walking and she nearly collapsed. Her hand was throbbing and as she watched him striding away she couldn't help wondering why she'd done it. Or why the sight of his retreating back filled her with so much dread.

* * *

Stargate Command, February 2007

Sam opened the file in her personal folder with Cameron's name and re-read it once more. All the words she could never say to him were in this file, mixed in with feelings and thoughts she'd already articulated to him in some form or another. It was those forbidden words however, which always caused her chest to constrict and her breathing to hitch. Wishing she had the courage to speak them was something she'd foregone long ago, giving him the password to this folder when she thought she was about to die had been the limit of her courage. And it was an onerous courage, one which cloaked itself as a bequest, veiled itself in the guise of an imposed duty. She hated herself sometimes.

As she read she was forced at several points to stop and look down at the keyboard or at one of the walls of the infirmary, or to minimise the document when a nurse came to check on her or the IV drip which was keeping at bay the intense pain she felt simmering under the surface of her left side. She'd almost died, she would have died if not for Cameron. Not because he'd done his best to treat her wound, he'd just willed her to live and she couldn't deny him. She stared blankly at the text in the file as her mind drifted back to the previous day's events on P9C-882. She couldn't deny him. 'Sam, don't give up on me.' he'd demanded of her. 'Just believe you're gonna make it.' he told her. 'I can't lose you, too.' She screwed her eyes shut as his words flowed over her mind again. She missed Daniel and she could tell Cam did too, but when he said he couldn't lose her he had a look in his eyes that had scared her. She looked back to her screen and read over the last paragraph in the file. She'd written it not long after Daniel had been taken by Adria. She was telling him she didn't blame him. That Daniel's loss wasn't his fault. She started a new paragraph.

_You just saved my life, Cameron. Again. I know I've saved you several times as well and that you always remind me of that, but this time it wasn't your actions that saved me when we were out of phase, although they certainly helped. It was your will, your belief in me. 'Tell yourself whatever you have to.' you said. Do you want to know what I told myself? I told myself that I can't leave you. I can't let you mourn me because I know that would end you. I know it deep down in my soul._

_We've always been friends, Cameron. I know I wish we could have been more, truth be told, I still wish for it even though I'm sure you've never thought of me that way. But I sometimes catch a glimpse of something in your eyes, Cam, that scares me. Whenever we're in trouble and you look at me and I see the fear in your eyes, the fear of losing me, I know it in my heart that if I did die you'd never recover. So as I lay there on that cot, I kept telling myself. Don't leave him. You can't leave him. He needs you to live._

_The last thing I remember before I woke up in the infirmary was the feel of your arms around me, Cameron. After I'd strengthened the field and cloaked the whole village you held me in your arms and I felt safe. Safe enough that I could sleep for a little while. You always make me feel safe. So whatever the future brings us, I won't leave you to wait for me alone._

She blinked at the stinging in the back of her eyes and took a slow breath. More forbidden words. Words she could never show him. Her eyes widened in realisation. She'd given him the password. She bit her lip then chuckled when she recalled his words as she'd told him the password to the personal folder. 'Ah, see? Now you're gonna have to change the password.' He was right, not that she had any fear of him betraying her confidence or her privacy, but it amused her to give him his due in this instance. A nurse bustled around her bed, checking over a few things as she brought up a command window and typed in some commands, pausing at the prompt to think for several seconds. A new password. He'd just saved her life, given it back to her with a super-human effort of will. She smiled slowly at the image it brought to mind and quickly typed in a single word, 'kryptonite'. The nurse smiled in reaction to her smile and walked away, nodding to someone at the door to the infirmary. When Sam glanced up she saw him leaning against the frame, his arm braced across the space in that nonchalant way of his. She smiled at him and closed her laptop as he moved to walk in.

"Hey there. You're looking better."

* * *

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, October 2008 (alternate timeline)

"Cameron, when you say you're going to be outside Hollywood International at 0900 hours you should be here at 0900 hours. I've been waiting for thirty minutes." Sam glanced up from her phone as it recorded her frustration to see an incredibly gorgeous 1965 Aston Martin DB5 pull up right in front of her. She could see Cameron grinning at her from the window of the imported right-hand drive car. "I'm going to go tell you I love you now. And I won't mean it! Though it won't be easy since you've shown up in the most beautiful car I've ever seen." She spun her phone around for several moments to record some footage of the car. "Except for my baby of course." She shut off the recording and leaned down to pick the Delta Airlines tag from her luggage as she watched him climb out of the car to walk towards her. She smiled at him and lifted her sunglasses up onto the top of her head.

"Hey there, darlin'. Sorry I'm late, people can't help looking at the car." He cupped her cheek in a hand and kissed her gently. "I missed you." Damn the man. She didn't even care that he was late anymore. She leaned into his hand as his fingers caressed her cheek. "I love you." He grinned and she blushed at his words. "I like being able to say that." She shook her head slightly before kissing him again and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I like hearing it." she admitted softly. "I love you too." she added with a touch of her fingertips across his flushing cheeks, she even meant it. "Now, who did you steal that beautiful thing from?" she growled with a mischievous nibble on his ear as she looked over his shoulder. "You cannot afford that on your Air Force stipend." He chuckled as he pulled away and bent down to pick up her suit case.

"I found this little beauty for my first procurement customer." he replied, putting her case in the trunk. "You know that airfield near my place that I told you about?" She nodded as he opened the door for her on the street side, making sure there wasn't any traffic in her way. "One of the regulars is a little on the wealthy side, if you take my drift, and when I told him what I did he asked me to look at his '71 'Vette Stingray." Sam reached into her messenger bag and pulled out her laptop which she powered up. She fiddled with the track pad and a few clicks had a picture of a black, low slung Mako Shark style Corvette with a prominent bulge in the hood, under which sat the 454 cubic inch big-block LS6. "Yeah, that's the beast." Cam chuckled as he turned over the DB5's own 4 liter Tadek Marek inline six. "He was so impressed he told me he'd bring any other cars of his my way once he got them and I asked him if he was always looking for new cars." Sam began chuckling seeing where this was leading. "He said, yeah, that he was working off a list of cars he'd been compiling his whole life. Cars he's always wanted to own." As they got on the freeway he turned to look at her with a bright smile. "Want to take the coast road all the way to Miami?" She nodded with a smile as he indicated to turn off and head east. "Anyway, I told him I was also setting up to find cars for interested buyers and he gave me this look." He hit her with his imitation of the man's scrutinising glare and Sam laughed. "He said, find me a pristine DB5 and I'll pay you to find the rest of the list too. So I did. In Idaho."

"Idaho?" She looked over the car in amazement. "Wait, did you drive this all the-" She stopped at his emphatic nod and couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Holy Hannah, sweetie, will you even be able to hand over the keys to this thing after driving it nearly three thousand miles?"

"I'm almost sure I can." he admitted and she laughed again. "Mr. Cabott has a house in Miami and he asked me to meet him there to drop this baby off." He ran a hand over the dashboard. "He also agreed to loan me his kitchen when I told him about our plans to sail to Bimini. He says it's always good to take a hamper of food and drink." Sam smiled at that before she looked out the window at the Atlantic Ocean filling her view. She sighed in contentment as the warm autumn breeze whipped at her hair while they cruised along sedately under the morning sun.

"Will he not be upset when he finds out you gave me a ride?" she asked with a sidelong glance. He laughed, shaking his head.

"Baby, you are the pièce de résistance. You complete the effect." He eyed her with a decidedly evil smirk. "No car looks as good as when a beautiful woman is stepping out of it." She gaped at him and turned away, blushing furiously. She looked out the window for a while longer.

"So this is why you asked if I was free for the three days before this trip?" she asked while looking at him wistfully. He nodded slightly. "I'm starting to regret accepting that install." she mumbled, he looked at her askance.

"The woman who owns the metallurgical refinery plant?" He shook his head. "No, baby, having her as a contact is important and you were right."

"Yeah, but this is car is something else and we only have the drive to Miami to enjoy it together." she grumbled with a theatrical pout. He chuckled.

"I'm sure Mr. Cabott will want me to give the car a thorough going over when he gets it back to Austin." he explained. "I noticed one or two things while driving her down. I expect he'll notice some others on his own drive back." He smiled broadly. "And while I'm working on it I'm sure I'll need to drive it quite a bit." He winked and she laughed.

* * *

Stargate Command, September 2010

"Denied." O'Neill said from his seat in between General Landry and Teal'c. Daniel stopped his presentation to turn around and frown at the man from his position in front of the TV screens at the end of the briefing room. Cam shifted uneasily in his seat beside a troubled-looking Sam on the opposite side of the table from the Generals. Vala blinked in surprise from where she stood next to the television with a pile of reference materials at the ready while Teal'c steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair with a lift of his eyebrows, clearly surprised himself.

"Jack-" began the archaeologist.

"No, Daniel."

"Sir, I think-"

"Forget it, Mitchell."

"O'Neill, this is-"

"Negative, Teal'c."

"General, we really-"

"Ne. Ga. Tory, Vala."

"But, sir, the only-"

"Nyet!" Sam sighed beside Cam, obviously knowing that when Jack O'Neill broke out into foreign languages there really was no going back. Especially when it was Russian. "There's no way I'll ever agree to anything as crazy as this, Carter." Landry just smirked as if telling them all 'I told you so' and drummed the fingers of his hands over the table.

"I'll beg, Jack." offered Daniel. Everyone turned to look at him with evident surprise.

"As much as I'd love to see that, Danny-boy, it won't change my answer." Jack said with a small smirk, though he grew more serious before he spoke again. "It's more important that we identify the bastards who hired Masim's men to launch bioweapons at us, than it is to chase after clues about long-dead Ancient spoilsports."

"They're not-"

"As good as, Daniel!" Jack cried. "You said so yourself! Merlin stuck 'em in the freezer!" Daniel closed his eyes with a frown and a sigh.

"Yes, sir, but-" tried Cam one more time.

"No buts, Mitchell." Jack interjected. "Your team is in on the stakeouts, are we clear?" Cam had clamped his jaw shut at the interruption and now turned to look at Sam who sighed softly for his benefit.

"Yes, sir." he acknowledged when he turned back to the Lt. General across from him.

"Hank's got your assignment," O'Neill muttered as he and Landry stood up from the table, Cam shot up to attention and Jack waved him back down, "sit and listen to the man." There was a slight apology in Jack's eyes when he walked out of the briefing room. Cam slumped back into the chair and turned slightly to smile at Sam when she intertwined her fingers in his under the table.

"Don't take it personally." Landry intoned as he sat down in his usual place at the head of the table and pushed a stack of folders forward to the center. "Jack is under a lot of pressure from above with this situation. Our window of opportunity is closing fast. Dr. Heidal only had intel for the dates and times of three meetings." Daniel and Vala came to sit beside Teal'c in the seats vacated by the generals and they all picked up one of the folders from the pile. "If we don't get a break soon we'll be back to square one."

"Have the Tok'ra not been attempting to infiltrate Masim's hierarchy, General Landry?" asked Teal'c while he perused the contents of the file in his hands.

"Yes, Teal'c." confirmed Landry. "They have a man making his way up the ranks, but they're nowhere near being able to use it to their advantage. We've also got to remember the Lucian Alliance has brainwashing technology. The safety of their operatives and ensuring they are not compromised is their top priority." The Jaffa nodded once.

"Will we have eyes on P4S-891, sir?" Cam asked while checking over the details of their assigned planet.

"Yes, Colonel, Apparently the selection criteria does not preclude using the same planet twice in a row." replied Landry. "That's SG-6's beat this time around though."

"We don't want to create the impression of familiar faces hanging around these planets at the times of these meetings," Sam explained, "even if they never leave the area of the Stargate themselves, it doesn't mean they don't have people who go to the villages in advance of their arrival." Cam nodded.

"I've been here before." Vala announced tapping the open folder in front of her on the table.

"Okay," began Cam as he glanced over at the former thief, "is this a good thing or a bad thing." She hemmed and hawed and eventually came down on the side of 'bad thing'. "All the other teams are already at their designated planets, right, sir?"

"That's right, Mitchell," confirmed the General, "all the other planets were assigned by the time you and your team returned from Camelot."

"Well," the Air Force officer turned back towards Vala, "I guess that means you and Jackson are on surveillance detail, while Sam and I are undercover in this coastal town below the 'gate." He tapped the second page with its summary of the local community of fishermen and tradesmen. Daniel sighed and looked at Vala with an accusing glare, she pouted theatrically.

"It's a boring place anyway." she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Daniel just sighed.

"You're okay with performing orbital surveillance in a cloaked ship again, right, Teal'c?" asked Sam with a glance towards the Jaffa.

"Indeed, Samantha Carter." He nodded once deeply.

"Alright, SG-1, you have a go." Landry stood up again with Cam quick to follow. He turned to head to his office while Cam glanced around the table at his team.

"Don't worry, guys. General O'Neill will come around." he intoned. Daniel crossed his arms with a rueful smirk as he leaned back in his chair, turning it slightly from side to side. Vala lay her head down on her forearms on the table as her ponytail flopped over the top of her head, she was obviously upset that Daniel hadn't been able to use any of the material she'd prepared for the presentation before Jack shut them down.

"We just need to be patient, it _is_ kinda crazy." Sam added as she stood up herself.

* * *

P7X-611, September 2010

"Do you think Jackson's gagged Vala yet?" he asked with a glint in his eye and an amused grin.

"Cam!" she cried in mock-horror. "Daniel would never do something-" She stopped when he lifted his eyebrow and she tilted her head in recollection. "Okay, I admit, he has gagged her before. A few times." she replied in defeat as he chuckled. He touched his hand to the small of her back as they walked along the coastal road into the small seaside community, not really large enough to be called a town, but certainly larger than most villages in the vicinity of Stargates on similarly out of the way planets. This one did actually see a steady trade with at least one other world, though the general infrequency of the trade missions still made it suitable for Masim's purposes. The Stargate itself was situated atop a rocky crag on a bluff overlooking the western sea, the path they were on wended its way down the high cliff along the coast and doubled back to the town, situated at the foot of the cliff on a broad spit of fertile green pasture land beside the inlet and high walled river channel which fed into the sea as a tidal estuary.

Sea birds of various descriptions nested along the cliff face as it towered over the town and its harbour-full of fishing vessels, both groups waiting for nightfall, the local marine life being nocturnal. They screeched and cawed as they hovered on the winds which blew along the rock wall while Cam and Sam walked their way past the first ramshackle buildings on the edge of the town. Incongruously, the settlement was actually best known out among its trading partners for the quality of its weave and cloth, warm and durable and made with an eye for aesthetics, it came in many different colours and patterns, enough to suit almost any taste. Which is why Sam was posing as a textiles merchant while Cam was meant to be her partner slash bodyguard.

"We only left them forty minutes ago, Cam, I'm sure they'll manage for a little while longer on their own." She smiled with a sidelong glance at her love. He grinned back with a chuckle. "Okay, better get in character now. My name is Angharad," Cam smiled at that, "I'm starting to expand my textiles import business on Hebridan now that recovery from the Ori occupation is well on its way. Do I look the part?" she asked with a sweep of her hands down her front. Cam looked her up and down, taking in the hair tied up with a twirled braid at the back, the dark green, ankle-length jacket tied up with silk knots from the waist to a mandarin collar, over black slacks and dark brown leather boots. She finished off the look with her glasses, much to Cameron's delight.

"You look rich, and business-like, not to mention beautiful." he replied with a smile then hitched up the gun belt around the waist of his brown slacks below the dark blue double-breasted shirt he wore with a couple of buttons undone to show the black t-shirt underneath. He pulled at the cuffs of the tan duster he tended to wear when trying to blend in with galactic society while on off-world missions and spun around on the heels of his black leather boots to walk backwards in front of her and let her get a look. "How about me?"

"You look like a scruffy-looking nerf-herder." she jibed with a smile. He clapped his hands together, obviously pleased.

"Exactly what I was hoping for!" he exclaimed as she laughed.

"Remember, you're my muscle. You need to look tough so I don't have to." she said with a waggle of her finger at him. He grimaced slightly, getting into character.

"Cam Mitchell, Bounty Hunter and Bodyguard." he muttered in a low, rumbling voice.

"Lose the 'Bounty Hunter' and the strange voice." she warned as he glared at her with a snort.

They spent the next hour or so making sure they were seen frequenting various merchant houses and enquiring about quotas and production schedules. Sam was serious, but calm while Cameron stood just off to her side like a stone statue, albeit one which looked capable of striking a killing blow on anyone in sight at any moment. He exuded menace. They also visited several of the market stalls in the small bazaar by the waterfront to check out the merchandise the locals preferred for themselves. Sam arranged to buy a few pieces from one of the stalls with particularly fine cloth. To keep up her cover, of course. She was getting a strange vibe from the merchant whenever he glanced at Cameron. For his part, Cam merely let his eyes wander over the environment nonchalantly. Sam got the merchant's attention again and frowned slightly with an inquisitive tilt of her head.

"Is there a problem, Ser Pamuin?" she asked in a clipped tone.

"Not at all, Sar Angharad. Not at all." he looked down at the handful of naquadah coins she'd used to pay for the small bundle of cloths she'd handed over to Cam. She narrowed her eyes at the man, indicating her slight disbelief. "I'm just wondering why a fine lady with a keen, discerning eye such as your good self is able to tolerate the unrefined presence of one such as he." She glanced at Cam, but he gave no indication he'd even heard the man speaking. He was really getting into his character, just scanning over the small clusters of townspeople as they moved through the bazaar. Sam turned back to the trader.

"Ser Pamuin, when a man can shoot a coin out of the sky at thirty paces, I am really not interested in his taste in vestments." she replied with a furrowed brow. The man blinked in surprise and glanced at Cam once more and at the galactic-style heavy stubber hanging off his right leg.

"I am having trouble believing such a claim, Sar Angharad." he said with a quick glance in her direction, she pursed her lips slightly, making sure he got the impression she was displeased with his insinuation she wasn't being honest. He quickly caught on and raised his hands in a placating manner. "Perhaps a small demonstration?" Sam glanced around at all the traders nearby who were looking their way in eager curiosity.

"You are asking for my man to demonstrate his marksmanship in such a crowded place?" she asked with subtle incredulity. Cam had actually turned to lock eyes on the trader.

"It is a favoured sport in our land, we are all avid shooters and take great pleasure in such informal displays of skill, is that not so, fellows?" Many of the other merchants brought up various guns and long rifles from behind their counters and a general rumble of acknowledgement went up from the gathering quickly forming around Pamuin's stall. "For instance, a preferred target is that bell at the end of the pier-" the trader's pitch was interrupted by a sharp report and the pealing of said bell. Sam didn't even have to turn around to know Cam had just raised his pistol and fired in a single motion at the small bell some 60 paces away. The look on the merchant's face also told her that Cam had done it with only a cursory glance at the target. "How... we usually start at 20 paces with pistols and get progressively more distant... you barely even looked at it."

"I looked at it when I first arrived." Cam replied indifferently, re-holstering the gun after a quick flick of the wrist. Pamuin gulped nervously while the other traders all around them were clapping enthusiastically. Sam almost sighed, her fiancé really had watched far too many movies.

"As I'm sure you can surmise, Ser Pamuin, I hire my employees for their skills, not their fashion sense." She turned around and gave Cam a little appraising look. "That is also not the only gun he is skilled at handling." Cam glanced her way and gave her a knowing leer with an upward flick of his head which completed the effect to a 'T'. She turned back to the merchant with a small smile on her lips.

"Hrm, yes, he does indeed show great skill with a gun, Sar Angharad, I must admit to rarely seeing such talent among the outworlders." he murmured. Sam lifted an eyebrow up behind her glasses.

"You mean your trading partners the Paressi?" Sam asked as she noticed Cam had returned to his nonchalant scanning of the crowd who were giving him nods of approval and calls of good cheer.

"No, we do not consider them as outworlders. They are of our own." He screwed his face up in a gesture of slight discomfiture. "You are a well-travelled lady, are you not, Sar Angharad?" She nodded. "There are all kinds out among the stars, am I right?"

"I have seen more than most, even among my people of Hebridan." she replied. Pamuin looked at her with a curious gaze. "Hence my choice in travelling companions." She flicked her head in Cam's direction, which brought a look of understanding to his eyes.

"Have you met many peoples on your travels who leave you feeling... a chill?" He spoke hesitantly, though the fact he spoke at all indicated Cameron's demonstration had engendered some appreciation for them in the trader's sensibilities. Still, the question left her slightly bemused.

"I mostly deal with traders and merchants such as your good self, Ser Pamuin." She looked at Cameron for a moment. "My man has more experience with those who give others... chills." Cam grunted without looking directly towards them.

"I'm sure. A man has to have a reason to be that skilled." Pamuin murmured with a look of new-found approval towards Cameron. "My reason is sport, whatever Ser Cam's may have been when he began, it is now to guard your good self, yes?" Sam's only reply was a tilt of her head. The merchant rubbed at his chin. "We see traders and merchants from a dozen worlds among the stars, even sportsmen on occasion come to hunt the game on the wild plains beyond Turya. They are all much like us, it is something our landsteaders have come to take for a truth. That is until we met Olun and Helur of the Aschen." Sam was very glad that Pamuin was arranging some bolts of his weave and not looking directly her way when he spoke. It gave her time to school her features, she could sense the air behind her vibrating just from Cam's sudden tension. "Odd ones they are, very... odd. Distant, dispassionate, disdainful." He finally glanced up at Sam and she hoped she managed to convey equanimity with her gaze. "Do you know their people? I am reticent of course, to judge an entire world by the demeanour of but two of their number."

"I have heard the name, yes, it is my understanding however, that they are not fond of travelling outside the borders of their own Confederation." Sam replied. Outwardly she tried to appear calm, inwardly she was seething with curiosity as to what two members of the notoriously cautious race were doing so far from their space. "Did they come here to trade?" The merchant shook his head.

"Indeed not, they come to conduct experiments." He pointed up into the sky. "With the weather." Sam looked at him askance. "They make it rain."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Chapter 2**

Skies above the Ancient outpost, Antarctica, June 2004

"Remember, no matter what, we're here to protect SG-1 at all costs. Target the Al'kesh first, gliders second." Cam ordered his squadron over the radio. "Go low, boys and girls, Prometheus has our backs." He looked at the incoming armada of Goa'uld assault craft and fighters and clenched his jaw tight when his gaze flicked down to the small Tel'tak cargo ship riding a coring beam over the ice field. Sam was on that ship. He picked up on Lieutenant Banks behind him highlighting an Al'kesh as a target, one of the ones at the back. Adam knew him well. "Pass that target to Blues Two and Three as well, Banks. One bird each."

"Yes, sir." Banks did as ordered while Cam targeted the gliders on approach ahead of them as secondary targets.

"Fox Three." he called, hearing similar calls from his wingmen as three radar-guided missiles powered ahead of their flight and struck the underbelly of the Al'kesh, sending it spiralling away to its destruction in the ice below. "Fox Four, Fox Four." He opened up with his railguns at the incoming fighters, destroying one and then another before they hit the formation and flew through it. Cam turned the 302 on edge and corkscrewed his way in between the other craft.

"Break left." Banks called and Cam followed his guidance. "Two gliders at our three o'clock." Cam flicked his gaze up to the right and saw the crescent shaped wings of the alien fighters as they banked slightly away, homing in on one of the Terran spacefighters ahead of him. "They're targeting Blue Four."

"Redmond, you have two bandits on your six, take evasive action." he called into the radio as he saw Blue Two forming up on his wing.

"Copy that, Blue Leader." acknowledged the pilot who began juking his fighter randomly. Cam angled in behind the alien ships and his HUD lit up when he switched to his infrared guided short range missiles. The reticule narrowed on the glowing engines of the glider ahead of him and he knew Banks was coordinating with Blue Two's second seat to target the other fighter. The lock-on circle fixed in the reticule with a continuous tone and flashed red.

"Fox Two." he watched as his warhead sped ahead and corkscrewed in to the path of its target, along with Blue Two's own missile, headed for the other ship. Both exploded almost simultaneously as Cam turned sharply to the right to avoid the explosions. "Stay at my eight o'clock, Nash." he called to his wingman who acknowledged as they both broke back towards the main formation of alien ships to find new targets.

"Blues Six and Five with Al'kesh and gliders on their six." Banks called with a green highlight on a pair of friendly radar contacts. Cam flicked his gaze to his radar then broke left to catch up.

"Nash, take the kids, I'll get Momma." Cam switched back to his long range, active radar guided missiles and targeted the Al'kesh. Nash's selected targets highlighted on his HUD and they streaked in from the side. "Fox Three, Fox Three." he called firing his missiles, they blew a massive hole into the Goa'uld assault bomber's engine housing and it exploded in a fireball. He switched to guns and selected his wingman's targets. "Fox Four." Between the two of them they took out all of them, but only after they had destroyed one of the 302s. "Nash, stick with Six and take out his Al'kesh target."

"Copy that, Blue Leader." came the acknowledgement as his long time friend broke left to latch on to Blue Six's wing. Cam broke right in search of more prey.

"Contact, one bogey on the deck and inbound." called Banks from behind him. A target flashed red in his radar and he flicked his gaze at the Al'kesh flying straight for Sam's Tel'tak. He snarled and dove for it.

"Tally one." He slid in behind it and brought up his IR missiles. The lock-on indicator began zeroing in and the Al'kesh started twisting in its flight, banking straight at the cargo ship. It was about to open fire and he had to get it to veer off. "Fox Two, Fox Two." he called as he fired a pair of missiles without tone. It was enough. Even as the birds streaked past their wildly evading target, the Al'kesh had lost its own opportunity to fire. Cam blinked at the near-miss of his unguided warheads. They'd nearly taken out the alien ship. "So close." He was rocked by an explosion from behind as warning indicators started blaring.

"We've been hit, left thruster is down." Banks called as Cam was twisting around to try and get a look. "Contact, two bandits on our six." He grunted and pulled away from his target with a grimace. He'd need to concentrate on evasive manoeuvres with a damaged plane, no time for attack right now. He gripped the yoke and pulled hard right, firing his RCS thrusters to help turn the ship more tightly while staff cannon fire rained past his cockpit.

"Blue Leader, we've got your six." called Redmond over the radio from Blue Four as he dove in from above and destroyed one of the gliders with railguns. Cam twisted around again as the other continued to shoot at him. He pulled back to the left just as the glider behind him exploded after getting hit with a missile.

"Nice shot, Red!" Cam congratulated the other pilot as he flew past behind him. Cam looked over at two gliders coming in from his left and cursed, but before he could sound a warning over the radio, he heard a dull burst and Banks' call from the second seat.

"He's been hit!" the Lieutenant exclaimed and Cam cried out over the radio for a response from his wingman. "He's gone." Cam cursed and pulled his limping fighter back to the right and Prometheus.

* * *

Viridia, inside Muranis, September 2010

Sam shone her light at the darkened consoles inside the waist-deep horseshoe-shaped moat which girded the power distribution core of the sleeping spaceship. Cameron watched her from where he stood on the main engineering deck and then checked the display on his forearm. He gently tapped his helmet over his ear and Sam turned to face him with a little smile.

"So... how long do you think it will take you?" he asked and she looked around the core again.

"I'll need fifteen minutes to check things over, then I bet I'll just be able to flick her on with a thought." she replied after meeting his gaze again. Cam chuckled.

"Tell you what. I'll give you seventeen minutes." He said and gave her an evil grin when she frowned in confusion. He then touched a finger to the comm stud on his helmet. "~Galadia, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida for myself and Sam, if you'd be so kind.~" Sam's eyes widened and she nearly started laughing when the ship burbled an acknowledgement and the organ scale began, with the distorted, droning guitars following soon after. Cam's head began to bob back and forth on his neck and Sam shook her head at him, but turned to look over the consoles again.

"If you start singing I'll cut your oxygen lines." she warned and he laughed. It was an empty threat and he knew it. And sure enough, soon after that, she was the one who began singing and he joined in with her. While the song's long combination solo and break section played, Sam ran the small portable power generators to several stations, checking them over one by one, while they chatted about the things they'd learned from Merlin the day before.

During the guitar solo they discussed the revelation that Muranis' main function was as a vast probability simulator, taking scenarios and playing them out to likely conclusions. Effectively, a large systems modelling suite. The entire facility was meant to be the headquarters of the Alteran's seeding project in the Pegasus Galaxy, or Selerinus as it was originally going to be named before they left in Atlantis and settled on the name Lantica instead. The vaguely tribal sounding drum break brought a discussion of Kariala's main role as the expeditionary and military hub of the Alterans. Not to mention Sam's fascinated speculations as to how she was able to open up a hyperspace window large enough to pass the whole of Luna through. The organ solo brought with it talk of Selenis' role as the manufacturing and power generation base. Muranis and Kariala had manufacturing capability, including the ability to build ships as Viridia proved, but not on the same scale as Selenis. It was meant to be the main habitat as well, their base in the Pegasus galaxy, fixed in orbit at a planet while the more mobile Muranis and Kariala travelled as was necessary.

By the time the lead vocals started up at the end of the song Sam was nearly finished, so much so, that she was quite happy to sing along with him until the end of the song, then with her hand held towards him she snapped her fingers together as the song ended and Viridia's power core came online with both ZPMs shining brightly. Cam grinned at her as Sam raised her hand in a sweep from her waist to above her head and a field rose from the deck up to the ceiling. She unlatched her faceplate at the chin, raised it over her head and came to take his hands in hers.

"~Welcome aboard, descendants of the Altera, I am Viridia.~" murmured a breathy female voice from all around them. Sam smiled.

"~Thank you, Viridia. I am Dr. Samantha Carter of Terra, this is Colonel Cameron Mitchell, also of Terra. We have come from Selenis.~" she said with a glance up at the ceiling while Cam unlatched the front of his helmet.

"~I understand, Dr. Carter. I am speaking with my sister, Galadia, nearby.~" There was a pause before she continued. "~Muranis is silent.~"

"~Yes, Viridia, Muranis is still decoupled from the rest of the facility, but has been cleansed of the worm which infected him.~" Cam explained and Viridia made some vaguely pleased sounds.

"~Unfortunately, he is dying, and we are unable to reverse the damage.~" Sam added quietly to the general silence of the ship.

"~I understand.~" Viridia acknowledged slowly, hesitantly.

"~We're sorry, Viridia.~" Cam intoned. "~We would like to take you back to Selenis with us, if you have no objections.~"

"~I have none, Colonel Mitchell. Will Dr. Carter be my commander?~" Sam was nodding already.

"~Yes, Viridia, I'll take you through to Selenis. At least, once we find out if we can establish a wormhole with the Supergate or open the hangar bay doors behind it.~" Sam said as she moved between the consoles checking various readings. According to their shared dream, Viridia was unable to leave under her own power during the initial attack. It meant they'd have to find a way of reactivating the Supergate at this end or of opening the vast hangar bay doors with a direct, makeshift connection from the ship to the mechanism, if worse came to worst they could leave by jumper through the archive repository hangar and go through the Stargate on Muranis' home planet down below, then return with whatever they needed from Selenis to effect repairs, as they'd be able to calculate the proper Stargate address once in orbit themselves.

"~That will not be a problem, Dr. Carter. The Supergate was reinitialised by Ilemus and Jenavia Reia shortly after their arrival on Muranis.~" Sam looked over at Cam with a frown.

"~Please show me, Viridia.~" Sam asked and a hologram of the Supergate appeared in front of them with a location on the ring flashing slightly. Sam twirled her finger over it and let it zoom in until she could see that a section of the Supergate's outer edge had a limpet-like attachment of myriad machinery components.

"~Muranis overloaded the main control crystal within 0.7 seconds of his initial infection. It prevented me from opening a Supergate to provide an escape route for the engineers and scientists trapped within the facility completing his construction.~" the AI explained. "~However, it was not necessary for me to do so as it was not the infected Muranis' intention to cause loss of life. He allowed the facility's personnel to evacuate to Atlantus before attempting to initiate self-destruct procedures.~" Sam gasped and turned wide eyes to Cameron.

"~What do you mean 'attempting', Viridia? Why hasn't Muranis been destroyed?~" Cam asked. He was also wondering why Muranis had self-destruct systems when Selenis didn't.

"~I prevented it.~" the ship stated simply in her light voice. "~While trying to infect me with the worm, I piggy-backed a backtrace program and system core cut-off into Muranis' cortex which severed command and control relays to the self-destruct systems with controlled overloads. I then destroyed my communication relays to prevent infection. They were repaired by Jenavia Reia.~" Cam blinked and looked over at Sam as he hadn't understood much of that, but Sam just grinned and giggled.

"I think Viridia could be Andre's worst nightmare." she murmured to Cam with a glint in her eyes. "A sultry-voiced superhacker with absolutely no interest in him physically." Cam laughed.

* * *

Muranis, Hexsecti 1421 AL (Lantean years after Exodus)

Cameron looked around himself to see the strobing edges and arcs of the Alteran night-vision. One particular area in his line of sight was completely impossible for him to look at. Every time he tried to open his eyes while facing it, bursts of light and colour filled his mind and he was left gasping in pain and scrunching his eyes shut again.

"That's Muranis." said Sam from beside him and he reached for her without opening his eyes. She took his hand and pulled him to her. "I'm here, sweetheart." He grunted and held her close. "She leaned into him and whispered in his ear. "You have to choose not to see it. Tell yourself it isn't there." He chuckled bitterly.

"Sam, it's an explosion of light and all sorts of shapes and lines. How can I pretend it isn't there?" He felt her pulling back slightly and placing her fingers over his closed eyelids.

"Muranis is just cut glass, Cameron. Only glass. You can see right through him and there's nothing inside him." She rubbed her thumbs gently over his eyes. "Do you believe me?" He gritted his teeth and nodded.

"Just cut glass, you know Muranis better than me. If you tell me he's just glass, then he's just glass." he replied and he felt her brush her lips against his. She passed her thumbs over his brows and then took a step back from him.

"Look at me, Cameron." she ordered and he opened his eyes slowly to see Sam in her billowing skirt and flowing blouse. He smiled gently, it seemed that in her dreams, Sam liked to be the lady her mother expected her to be. He decided not to tease her about it though, she looked beautiful after all. He focused his gaze on her, knowing she was standing in front of the _cut glass_ of Muranis. She reached her hand out and he stepped forward to take it in his. His eyes swept over the dark mass behind her with its faint edges delineating the various facets of the _perfectly clear_ glass column. Sam smiled at him and rewarded him with a tender kiss, he smiled against her lips in response.

"Have you seen Ilemus and his buddies yet?" he asked when she pulled back. Sam nodded, hooking a thumb behind her. He followed her gaze as she turned and led him to the edge of Muranis and around the platform that circled around his bulk. They soon found Ilemus and Artros deep in discussion while Jenavia and Larensera were seated next to each other against the metal and glass railing around the edge of the wide platform. Larensera was watching the two men while Jenavia seemed to be asleep. She held her visor in slack fingers in her lap while her head leaned heavily on the Praetrio's shoulder. "I arrived a while before you, I think," Sam said as she turned to face him, "I heard you cry out and figured you'd taken your first look at Muranis." He grunted.

"That's what Ilemus sees when he looks at Muranis through the visor?" he asked and Sam shrugged.

"He probably sees more actually, remember the Alterans have far better senses than we do, at least it seems that way from everything we've learned thus far." she replied and he grimaced. "The whole time I've been here, Ilemus has been talking to Artros about what their plans are after decoupling Muranis and introducing the attack programs. Ilemus wants to go on to Kariala, I think, and do the same there. Artros wants to return to Atlantis for a while to regroup and resupply." She looked over at him and he raised an eyebrow at her serious look. "They both agree on one thing though."

"And what's that?" he asked. Sam looked at the two men as they continued to list pros and cons.

"They both agree they should leave aboard Viridia." she replied and Cam looked at her in confusion. "I know! Viridia is in the hangar so they obviously didn't leave in her." Cam hooked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the women. "Well, Jenavia has been sleeping the whole time I've been here." Sam walked over to them and crouched down beside the sleeping woman. "Larensera hasn't said anything, but I don't know what sort of protocols the Alteran military has in place with regards to troop autonomy. Maybe she can only follow what her commander decides or maybe she gets a say as well."

"Though just Ilemus and Artros seem interested in this discussion." he offered, looking at the faintly glowing and broken outlines of Jenavia's features as she slept. He frowned slightly before turning around.

"That's right." Sam nodded as she came to slip her hand in his as he watched the two men. Artros looked away and nodded for a moment before turning around and walking back towards the catwalk platform.

"~We'll keep discussing as we go, Ilemus, this is a very important decision and shouldn't be rushed.~" he said in some sort of conclusion and Ilemus simply nodded.

"~I agree, Praediae. We can certainly keep discussing this up until we must decide in which direction to depart with Viridia.~" he replied and Artros chuckled.

"~I look forward to it.~" They could make out that he was smiling below his visor as he spoke. Ilemus walked over to Larensera and the sleeping Jenavia and came down on one knee in front of them.

"~How is she doing, Laren?~" he asked gently and the soldier turned her head to glance at the sleeping woman.

"~Far too tired for my liking. She's been up nearly eighty hours with only short hour-long naps like this every twenty-five.~" She frowned gently as she reached up to brush at the woman's wavy hair as it drifted down her neck and shoulder. "~She works too hard for you Ilemus, always has.~" she looked reprovingly at the older man who smiled slightly and nodded. "~Remember, she is still young.~" Ilemus chuckled softly.

"~And you're not, Praetrio?~" He reached over and patted the soldier on the shoulder.

"~I have training and enhancements,~" she grumbled, "~she only has her will and the need to please her mentor.~" Ilemus nodded and patted the sleeping woman gently on the head. "~Give her a little more time before you begin again.~" she kept the pleading tone out of her voice, but it was plain to see on her face, even in the lines and arcs of the night-vision. Ilemus nodded.

* * *

P7X-611, September 2010

Cameron did his best to show no outward reaction to Pamuin's words. It was hard. The Aschen, a race which conquered the worlds near their own under a façade of philanthropic benevolence. A mask which hid their real strategy of genetically engineered plagues and sterility inducing 'cures'. They were calculating, patient, perceptive and very arrogant. Earth had only just avoided becoming another of their conquests and had had no contact with them since leaving them with a list of Stargate addresses which opened on decidedly unpleasant locations. Cam had been hoping the Ori had done them in.

"That is fascinating, Ser Pamuin. They make it rain?" Sam asked the merchant genially. "Are they here now?" Oh, clever girl. He really did love her to bits.

"Not currently, no, Sar Angharad. They have not been here for several hands." replied the trader.

"Oh, how unfortunate, I would have loved to see them making rain." Sam murmured with a slight pout. He had to clench his jaw to keep from reacting to how adorable that was. "You must tell me all about it, Ser Pamuin." she pressed enthusiastically. The merchant described how the pair of Aschen paid the town council for allowing them to conduct their experiments in the nearby area. He claimed they would then hire a fishing boat for a day and take it several miles offshore while constructing an elaborate machine on the deck. From this machine they would fire a beam of energy upwards into the heavens and a swirl of angry clouds would begin to form after several hours. Prevailing winds would take the moisture-heavy clouds in to shore and the area around the town would be wracked with a heavy, though otherwise harmless, rainstorm for upwards of two days. Nothing Pamuin and his kith were not already used to. "It is a great pity I have missed such a display." Cam was pretty sure Sam wasn't trying very hard to put on an act when she said that.

"Well, perhaps I can be of some further use to your good self in such a matter, Sar Angharad." Pamuin obviously smelled the opportunity of a tidy profit which Sam had left dangling out there. She tilted her head inquisitively. "If I had a means of contacting you, I could, for a small concession of course, apprise you should they make a return to my fair world."

"For a small concession, of course." Sam nodded with a little smile. "However, the Stargate on my homeworld is protected, not just anyone may walk through and visit. I should be able to arrange a means of communication by which you could inform me the next time such an intriguing spectacle is in the offing." Pamuin smiled happily. "I shall return and discuss terms sometime in the future, Ser Pamuin, would this be agreeable?"

"Of course, Sar Angharad, most agreeable." he replied and Sam gave him a small smile then glanced over at Cam.

"It is past time for our luncheon, is it not?" she asked her 'bodyguard'. He lifted his left hand, with its bundle of cloths, to look at the round face of the bulky chronometer laced to a wide leather strap wrapped around his wrist, his dark metal clasp in disguise, and gave a nod of confirmation. "Ser Pamuin, would you care to suggest an establishment in your fair town where we could have our midday meal?" The merchant directed them to a seafront eatery not far along the wharf which served some fine samples of the local cuisine. It was entirely coincidental that it was owned and operated by his sister. Sam thanked him and signalled for Cameron to lead the way. He grunted and threw a conciliatory nod in Pamuin's direction before making sure the small crowds parted before his 'employer'.

Shortly thereafter, the pair found themselves seated at an outdoor table along a wooden deck overlooking the sea, it was a bit early in the day for the locals to be eating so they had the deck to themselves. Everyone knew outworlders kept odd hours. Cam had brought them two glasses of the local fermented fruit juice. To keep up their cover, of course. He reached into his pocket as he sat across from Sam and handed her his radio. She gave it a double tap and waited for the signalled reply before raising it to her lips.

"Daniel, Vala, we've heard something very interesting here in the town." she began in a soft voice. "It seems every several weeks the town sees a visit from a pair of Aschen, who then busy themselves making it rain."

"I think your joke is missing the punchline, Samantha, it went right over my head." Vala replied in rather clipped tones. Sam cringed in Cam's direction and he knew exactly what she meant. Vala did not sound happy.

"I'll fill you in on the Aschen, Vala," Daniel broke in over the radio, "do you think they're involved, Sam?"

"Daniel, just finding out the Aschen are wandering around outside their Confederation is bad enough, but yes, I think they're involved." she replied after getting a slight nod from Cam after she glanced up. This would be too much of a coincidence.

"That's not good, Sam." Daniel added and Sam snorted. "I'm with Vala on the whole rain thing though. Over my head."

"I'll explain it when we wrap things up and go back to the SGC, Daniel," Sam returned, "but my theory is: no rain, no meet. Sit tight as per the schedule and give Teal'c a heads up, okay? Oh, and Vala, Cam and I'll bring you guys something good to eat when we head back to the 'gate." She added a little double tap to indicate a return to radio silence, but it didn't stop Vala from breaking in over the comms.

"I love you, Samantha!" Sam giggled and handed the radio back to Cameron. He threw her a puzzled look and she motioned for him to sit next to her so he switched to the bench against the wall of the building. It had a view of the sea anyway. She leaned her head close to his after he settled and began her explanation with a question. "What's your stand out memory about the two meetings we've managed to be present for?" His eyes widened at her implication and she nodded. "I think the rain is an important component of their counter-surveillance strategy. I think the interference patterns Selenis was unable to filter out use the true randomness of the rainfall in its effect. The shielding I added may work, but I'm not confident."

"Could you filter it out now that you know more?" he asked and she glanced his way with a look of uncertainty.

"Not at a physical level. Maybe as a software filter, but it's doubtful." she replied before quieting down when a waitress approached with the food they'd ordered inside. They were tucking into their meal when another question struck him.

"Do you think Pamuin's ever seen a Hebridan comm unit?" He paused long enough from his eating to give her a quick glance along with the question. She shrugged indifferently and only replied when she'd finished chewing.

"It doesn't matter, we have some anyway. We mark it and give him the address for one of our off-world relay stations and they can act as a messaging service." She put on a perky upbeat voice with stilted inflections. "Complete with an automated Tech Con communications package for that authentic Hebridan experience." Cam chuckled and she smiled before leaning against him. "As far as Pamuin will know, he'll be talking to the communications center for one of Hebridan's colonies." He nodded.

"Well at least we'll know the next time they come here. How about the other worlds?" he asked. She grimaced slightly.

"I think this town's proximity to its Stargate is a factor in the Aschen actually needing to reveal themselves." she replied and it was Cam's turn to grimace.

* * *

Stargate Command, September 2010

"The accountants?" Jack asked incredulously of Sam as they sat around the briefing room table with the rest of SG-1 and Colonel David Dixon and his SG-2 team. General Landry raised an eyebrow in O'Neill's direction at the sudden outburst.

"Accountants with a penchant for conquering other planets, sir." Sam offered and Jack drummed his fingers on the desk. "We were _this_ close," she held her thumb and index finger infinitesimally apart, "to applying to join their Confederation." she reminded him.

"And you _know_ what the most popular theory for 'the note' is, General." Cam added to Jack's ugly grimace.

"Don't remind me, Mitchell. The Aschen are not on my Christmas card list, okay?" He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Just hearing the name again gives me the heebie-jeebies." He made a show of shivering. Daniel drew his lips into a tight line. "And you think they're the ones meeting with Masim?" Sam nodded. "Do I want to know why your mission report said it was to do with rain?" Sam shook her head. Jack turned towards Colonel Dixon. "You have some corroboration, Colonel?" Dixon nodded and signalled to his second, a rangy Captain with fine features under feathered red locks down to her jawline.

"Yes, sir, Captain Lewis will show you the video we managed to recover." Sam knew Riley well enough, the younger officer sometimes came by her lab with some interesting equations. The redhead stood and made her way to the multimedia equipment at the end of the room behind the Generals, they all turned to face her.

"When Masim's counterpart came through the Stargate the field went up almost immediately, it seems they send a device through first which projects the field." She began playing the video from a camera located on a tree a small distance from the 'gate as it was lashed by persistent rainfall. As it played they saw the Stargate open a wormhole and then a small device came through the event horizon and the field ballooned up from just in front of the 'gate just as a man could be seen coming through.

The video then switched over several cameras in sequence, some with views from outside the field while others were supposedly within it. Their feeds were garbled and blurry, distorted almost beyond recognition.

"Unfortunately, Dr. Carter's hardware shielding was only barely successful and not particularly effective." She looked at Sam with chagrin, but Sam shook her head with a smile, acknowledging the inadequacy. "That is, until the end of the meeting, sir, when the rain let up a little for several minutes. We theorise it is part of the reason why they seemed to rush through the last couple of topics." Jack looked at her with raised eyebrows and a tilt of his head. "You see, sir, without the rain, their counter-surveillance field became far less effective." She motioned towards the video which looked like it was seeing the world through bubbled glass. "Enough that we were able to enhance the video to eliminate almost all the distortion." What they saw was Masim standing alongside a man with a pallid face and sharp features, his hair combed back severely, dressed in a long tunic and trousers in shades of grey. The fish-eye lens of the camera, mounted discretely on the Stargate itself, captured the man reaching into a pocket on his tunic and pulling out a flat ovoid which he placed on the surface of the 'gate once everyone had stood off to the side. The kawoosh came very soon after that and the man left after retrieving the ovoid and acknowledging Masim with a nod of his head.

"That device powered and dialled the Stargate." Vala offered, pointing at the video. The young redhead nodded.

"That's what we think too." confirmed Dixon from his seat. "Which is why you guys weren't able to get anything except Lucian Alliance worlds from the DHDs before."

"What of their discussions, Captain Lewis?" Teal'c asked lightly of the Captain by the television. She shook her head sadly.

"Like the recordings from the meeting Colonel Mitchell and Dr. Carter were present for, they spoke in generalities and euphemisms, sir." she replied and Teal'c lifted an eyebrow at being called 'sir' by the young woman. "Not even a hint of anything specific like last time either, though there was one topic that seemed to be if not urgent, then at least imminent, no idea what it is of course."

"We've got the boys down at the lab checking it out." Daniel elaborated. Jack turned to stare at him with raised eyebrows. "What?"

"The boys down at the lab?" he teased to Daniel's heavy frown. Vala was biting her lower lip while Sam tried her hardest to keep the corners of her mouth from curling upwards. "Have we been watching a lot of cop shows lately, Daniel?" Teal'c closed his eyes momentarily while turning away and taking a deep breath. Cam clamped his jaw down as tight as he could.

"You have no idea, General." Vala intoned mock-gravely. Captain Lewis covered her mouth with her fingers and turned to face the window overlooking the embarkation room. Sam looked on with difficulty while the rest of SG-2 save Colonel Dixon were all trying to belay any displays of amusement by coughing into their hands or screwing their eyes shut. Dixon, as Cam always reminded her, had special ops training to prevent this sort of thing.

"You know what I mean, Jack." Daniel said in a stiffly controlled voice.

"Yes, we do, Dr. Jackson." conceded General Landry in an attempt to rescue the situation. "This does seem to paint the Aschen as our culprits." Sam had to grimace slightly at that.

"I don't know about that, sir. There are still several unanswered questions." she intoned with a little look from Landry to Jack. "What little wreckage we recovered from the warheads used in the attack bear absolutely no resemblance to any technology we know the Aschen use. Admittedly, it's not as if we got any schematics from them before they attempted to hit us with a bioweapon once we confirmed their intentions, but even cursory analysis shows little similarity."

"What do you mean, Carter?" Jack asked.

"Well, sir, it would be as if I showed you the Prometheus, and then told you that the next ship we built was the Biliskner." She hoped that would effectively summarise her point.

"Why didn't you say the O'Neill?" Jack demanded with a slight frown. Sam closed her eyes with a sigh before turning towards Cam who rolled his eyes.

"I assume because your head's big enough as it is, Jack." Daniel taunted and Jack turned the frown full force on his friend.

"There's also the question of just how the Aschen know about Destiny, sir." Cameron added from beside Sam, she gave him a little grateful smile. "Our understanding is that they had absolutely no knowledge of the Ancients save access to a limited network of Stargates."

"Fair point. However, we should go with Occam's Razor until you can get anything more definitive." Jack intoned as he stood up, Cam and all of SG-2 stood up immediately. "I'll take this to the Joint Chiefs, tell them we're making progress at last." He frowned in disgust. "Ya know what else comes to mind when I think of the Aschen?"

"Kinsey." Sam, Daniel and Teal'c intoned as one. Jack nodded and walked out with another theatrical shiver.

"You get your boys down at the lab working overtime, Danny-boy!" he called with a wave over his shoulder. Daniel buried his face in his hands.

"Alright, people, settle down." Landry waved them all back to their seats. "We're going to go over all six planets with an eye to possibly use this Aschen rain making to our advantage in identifying the next meeting point. Ideas?" Riley Lewis sat back down next to her team leader and frowned slightly.

"Only one other planet has a settlement remotely close to the Stargate, General." she pointed out. "Dr. Carter's method might work for that one too, but it leaves four more that would require us to have eyes on the ground to find them."

"Or eyes in the sky." Cam muttered. "It'd be nice to put up some spy sats in geo-synchronous orbit." He glanced up at Sam with a smirk. "Think the DoD will spring for some?" Sam blinked at him with wide eyes. "What is it, Sam?"

"Uh, we may already have them in place." she breathed to everyone's surprise.

"What do you mean, Samantha?" Vala asked from her other side. Sam turned to look at her then to the expectant face of General Landry. "Sir, we should check to see if those four systems have Ancient satellites linked in to Hypraxia. We'd be looking for the energy signature of their rain seeding beam, but that's the sort of thing those satellites are designed to do. It's just a question of whether they're sensitive enough to be able to pick out the readings from their orbital tracks around their assigned star."

"I want an answer to that question in the next few days, Dr. Carter." General Landry ordered before holding up a file given to him earlier by his daughter, Dr. Carolyn Lam. "At least our tests show the rain isn't harmful in any way." He stood up once again and the Air Force personnel stood along with him. "SG-1, SG-2, you're dismissed. Teal'c, you may head off to Chulak when you're ready. Mitchell, Carter, can I see you in my office a moment?" Sam turned to Cameron and saw her own curiosity reflected back in his eyes. She stood and passed her hand along Vala's shoulder with a reassuring smile to Daniel and Teal'c as she walked by and waved a general farewell to the members of SG-2 as they walked out together. She and Cameron both decided to lean on the cabinet under the board with the General's unit badges after they'd closed the door in response to his waved finger. He looked at them both as if about to give them very bad news.

"Is something wrong, sir?" Cameron asked as he crossed his arms defensively, tensing slightly. Sam leaned against him unconsciously. Landry looked down a moment with a troubled look before meeting both their gazes in turn.

"I'm not happy that I have to do this to you, Cameron, Sam." He sighed and Sam's eyes widened slightly in alarm. "I have to order you to... The Joint Chiefs have made it very clear to me that you are both expected to..." He grimaced and Sam was almost panicking now. She was so sure they were free and clear of any hassles with the fraternisation regulations.

"Just tell us, Hank." she said softly. Landry looked up at the use of his given name. Sam had never actually addressed him that way before. Cam uncrossed his arms so he could take her hand in his. She covered it with both of hers and held on tightly. Landry looked away from them for a moment before turning to face them again.

"The IOA is hosting a private dinner for ranking members of the House and Senate committees with military oversight. Representation from the SGC in general and SG-1 in particular has been made mandatory. I have to order you both to get drunk and go dancing." There was a long moment of sullen silence.

"With politicians, sir?" Cam asked in a broken voice.

"With bureaucrats, Mitchell." Landry elaborated and Sam groaned in horror along with her fiancé.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Chapter 3**

Kadena AB, Okinawa, January 1994

Cam stepped up to the bulletin board in the rec-room and slapped the piece of paper up against the cork. He took a free pin and stabbed it through the sheet then turned to face the others who had stopped what they were doing and looked over. He crossed his arms across the chest of his flightsuit and watched the men playing pool and the mixed group over by the chairs in front of the TV, and even the few folks reading magazines and books over by the windows. He'd wanted to make enough noise to get their attention and he'd succeeded. He rapped the back of his knuckles over the sheet once more.

"Step right up, boys and girls." he called loudly so that they could all hear. "Limited time offer. _You_, aviators and aviatrixes of the 'Vampire Bats', guarantors of liberty and defenders of freedom, my _fine_ friends, get to pick my new call-sign." The other pilots all started laughing or grinning as their curiosity was piqued.

"What's wrong with the call-sign you got, Cap." piped up a Lieutenant at the pool table while he tapped his cue on the floor a few times and glanced around. "You've never even told us what it is." Cam shook his head.

"It belongs to a time and a place, Jimenez, that I can't go back to." he replied. No one knew what had happened. They only knew he'd transferred in from the 19th FS at Al Dhafra after a prolonged leave of absence. He could tell that the older pilots, those that had been around a bit, had an inkling of what was going on. The fresh-faced Lieutenants didn't and he wasn't of a mind to explain his reasons to anyone.

"You sure about this, Mitchell?" asked a towering African-American pilot who walked forward from the area around the television.

"Yup, but there are _some_ rules, Nash." he replied and everyone chuckled. "You can put whatever you want down on this here sheet." He slapped the piece of paper again. "Steganofski and his crew will pick out a handful," he hooked a thumb at the maintenance unit's senior non-com who was glaring at all the pilots from the door, "and you will all get to vote on them." He turned and grinned at the Master Sergeant. "I'm sure Stegs and the rest of the wrench wranglers are open to a little... _persuasion_." The pilots all laughed again, some overtly asking the gruff man what his price was. "So, ya got until tomorrow at 1500 hours then the good Master Sergeant will take it away and return with a short list. Have at it!" He raised his hands and the men and women started chatting amongst themselves all at once. Nash came to look down closely at Cam for several moments.

"That bad, Cam?" he asked softly. Cam shook his head.

"Worse, I can't be that guy anymore." he responded darkly. "I can't wait it out." The other man nodded.

"You do realise, if it ain't an outright double entendre, it'll be at least innuendo." Nash flicked his head over his shoulder at the other pilots and Cam smiled wryly.

"I expect no less from this bunch of twelve year olds. Not even you, Alonso." Cam clapped the taller man on the shoulder.

"Hey, you'll always be Cornshucker to me, Mitchell." He furrowed his brow and turned towards the bulletin board. "In fact I think I'll go write that down." Cam shook his head.

Two days later he stood, arms crossed over his chest, next to his assigned plane in one of the hangars, watching a Tech Sergeant slipping stencils into a guide frame, writing out, 'CPT. CAMERON "SHAFT" MITCHELL' and climbing up the ladder gantry to apply it under the lip of the canopy by the first seat of the F-15C. He'd at least managed to convince the sergeant not to shorten his name to Cam on the stencil. He turned his head when Captain Nash approached in his half-doffed flightsuit with its sleaves tied around his waist.

"Shaft. Just another example of the White Man usurping the cultural icons of the African-American community." he joked with an amused slap across Cam's back. He chuckled with a little wince at the pain between his shoulder blades.

"Well, I'm sorry for not being big, black and beautiful, Alonso. Nobody's perfect." Cam retorted with a smile.

"Speak for yourself, Mitchell." Nash flexed a well-defined bicep and leaned over to plant a kiss on it. "I am a fine specimen. Check it!" Cam laughed.

"Put that away before you have someone's eye out." He looked up as the maintenance tech brushed his name and new call-sign onto his plane. He couldn't help the slight slump of his shoulders as some of the pent-up tension receded at last. "Most would assume it's a pun on my name and my predilection for automotive engineering." he offered.

"Or it could just be a euphemism." Nash countered with a grin. Cam glared at him then sighed.

"Everything is innuendo." he conceded finally.

"You got _that_ right, _Shaft_."

* * *

Raven's Nest Coffee, Old Colorado City, April 2007

Sam leaned back in the plush chair and stared out past the rainbow-patterned parasol currently closed over one of the outside tables in front of the broad frontage. She held up her mochaccino and took in a deep whiff of the aroma before letting out a contented sigh.

"We should do this more often, Samantha. It seems to do wonders for you." Vala smiled at her from her own plush chair before taking a forkful of her chocolate torte between her lips.

"I'd like that. We should definitely get out more, just us girls." She smiled at the woman who was becoming a better and better friend to her with each passing week. When she'd first joined the team after returning from the Ori galaxy, the almost-reformed thief had been a handful. A typical lone wolf, an outsider with a habit of running counter to the agreed script. They could all tell that what Vala really wanted was somewhere to belong, she'd just been running alone for so long she couldn't react in the way expected of someone who was a part of something bigger than herself. Sam had decided several months before that what Vala needed was a good friend. And truth be told, after Janet's death, Sam had been having trouble forming friendships herself. Cam's return to her daily life had just highlighted how many of her relationships, both professional and personal, were with men. Sam needed a good friend just as much as the alien sitting in the chair next to hers.

"I think the Tau'ri are missing out on a serious opportunity by not selling chocolate to the rest of the galaxy." she murmured through a mouthful of icing and filling. "And you're sure that cheesecake is good? I've had all sorts of cheese, Samantha, and I would never have thought of putting it in a cake."

"It uses sweetened cream cheese, Vala, not regular cheese." Sam explained before taking another bite.

"Hmm. I'll try it next time then." conceded the former smuggler as she reached down for one of the shopping bags they'd accumulated so far that day. She took out a soft cashmere top and spread it across her front.

"I'm sure Daniel will like it, Vala." Sam offered with a smile and the raven-haired woman looked up with a sad smile in return. Sam tilted her head to the side and looked worriedly at her friend. "Is something wrong?" Vala shook her head.

"No, I just think I'm beginning to understand this isn't the sort of thing that Daniel reacts to," she looked up at Sam again and shrugged slightly, "but it's what I know." She sighed and put the top back in the bag. "Like when I went with Cameron to his reunion thing. I could tell immediately that almost everyone there was only interested in outward appearances." Sam quieted instantly and looked down. Thinking about Cameron's high school reunion several weeks back always brought out feelings in her which she could only describe as... complicated. "Cameron isn't like that." Vala said and Sam met her gaze almost involuntarily. "You've known him a long time, right, Samantha?" Sam nodded warily. "Have you always been just friends?" Sam froze with a forkful of cheesecake part way into her mouth. She slowly put it back down on the plate.

"Yes, right from the start we've been very close friends, but just friends." she replied in a voice she hoped didn't give away how nervous she actually was. The raven-haired woman watched her for several long seconds while Sam took up her cheesecake once more.

"What was he like when you first met?" she asked and Sam nearly sighed in relief at the safe question.

"I met him when he came to take charge of my squad on my first day at the Academy..." she began, telling her friend of how Cameron had helped her get through the very hard first year in Colorado Springs, and how they'd become a very effective team together, helping each other with assignments and supporting each other's dreams. How she'd go to cheer him on at his football games and he'd act as her foil while she brainstormed for solutions to her science projects, or dragging her away from them when she needed the break.

"Basically, exactly what he does for you now." Vala interjected with a smile and Sam had to smile herself.

"Yes, once I returned to the SGC he picked up right where he left off at the Academy." Sam looked down into her mochaccino. "He takes care of me." she said softly, she narrowed her eyes slightly. When she thought about that she realised she only ever accepted that sort of thing from Cameron. "He takes care of all his friends." she said quickly with a glance at Vala. "Like Daniel, you know how he always keeps an eye on what Daniel is doing with his side projects. He does a lot for you as well."

"I know, I haven't forgotten how he came after me when I had lost my memories." Vala offered. Sam coloured slightly, remembering the sight which greeted her when they'd followed his transponder to that motel and broken down the door. She teased him about losing his pants again, but it was entirely to deflect her own embarrassment at seeing him like that. "Not the first time I've seen him topless, either. He looks very good in just a towel." Sam nearly choked on her cheesecake.

"When did-" She stopped when the answer popped into her mind. "When you were in Daniel's body using the stones." Vala just nodded with a teasing grin. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"He does have problems though." the alien muttered. "Annoying, idiotic problems." Sam tilted her head with her brow furrowed in confusion.

"What do you mean, Vala?" she asked as the other woman held her gaze for long moments.

"Well, when you said he takes care of you for example. He worries too much about other people and not enough about himself." Vala intoned. Sam frowned slightly.

"We usually think of that as a good thing." Her frown deepened when Vala rolled her eyes with an irritated look.

"It isn't when it's not actually doing any good." she countered. "He can be so unnecessarily stubborn about things, it's infuriating." Sam knew about that side of Cameron, but she didn't know what Vala was talking about specifically. Vala sighed and closed her eyes. "It's not any of my business. I've been trying very hard to follow Daniel's advice about that." She looked sadly in Sam's direction before speaking again. "I've gotten so fond of all of you and I don't like seeing any of you unhappy. It causes a tightness in my chest. Which I can assure you is not the sort of thing I've experienced very often in my life up until now." She frowned.

"Are you saying Cameron is unhappy, Vala?" Sam wracked her brain, trying to pull up any memory of her recent interactions with him which would show he was unhappy about something. She couldn't think of anything. He always smiled when they were together. "Didn't he get together with his high school crush at the reunion?" Sam frowned. "The pretty blond, Amy Vandenburg." Vala sighed with a nod.

"He's settling." she intoned then took a sip of her coffee. Sam looked at her in alarm. That was an outrageous claim to be making.

"What do you mean?" she asked in a barely audible whisper.

"I mean he's decided his own happiness isn't important." Vala said in a voice filled with various levels of regret. Not something Sam was used to hearing in the woman's tone. She was surprised when she found Vala turning a glare on her. She blinked and tilted her head. "And what about you, Samantha? Are you settling?" Her breath hitched at the question, she wondered where it had come from. Vala's eyes turned shrewd; Narrow and scrutinising. "Mind you... I have noticed recently, how you've been doing yourself up a little bit more." Sam's eyes widened. "Just a little, mind you, and only in the last few weeks." She looked around the café. "And you did invite me out today, with the promise of doing it more often." She looked at Sam's bags, and the dresses she'd bought for the impending arrival of summer. She looked up at Sam's floral print dress as well. "Hmm. Are you dressing up for someone as well?" Sam blanched in horror.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Vala. I wanted to show you what a girls' day out was about, that's all." She looked down and wondered to herself what could have brought such an idea into the other woman's head. Was she putting a little more effort in her appearance lately? She didn't think she was. She frowned in thought until her mobile phone began beeping. She looked in her bag and saw it was the alarm she'd set. Saved by the bell she supposed. "Our time's up I'm afraid, we have to get back to prepare for our trip." She said cautiously, mindful of the other patrons nearby. Vala was still eyeing her shrewdly, but turned to stand up and gather her bags. Sam let out a relieved breath as quietly as she could.

"I think you are dressing up for someone, Samantha." Vala said softly as she stood up straight. "I want you to know I support you." Sam looked at her quizzically.

Thirty minutes later they were back on base, walking down a corridor on sublevel 25 in the direction of their quarters to put away their bags and get changed. Sam's breath hitched slightly when she caught sight of Cam walking their way while talking to Siler. She flushed slightly when he spotted her and his eyes travelled up and down her length. He said something to Siler without taking his eyes off her and the Master Sergeant smacked face first into an open door when he turned around. Sam winced while Cam checked up on the man as she and Vala approached. With Siler squared away he turned his attention back on them, a quick glance at Vala followed by a long look her way which left her smiling.

"That's a nice outfit." he said with a little hitch in his voice. Vala nudged her shoulder and gave her a significant look along with her smile. Sam just tried to smile back normally, but she was far too pleased with herself. "It's very... um..." He gulped slightly as he looked her up and down again.

"Civilian?" she teased with a quick, amused glance at the woman next to her. Cam nodded with a smile.

"Well, yeah, that's one way of putting it." He chuckled with a glance between both women. "So what is this? Girls' day out?" he asked and Sam looked over at Vala before turning back to Cam with a smile.

"Well, yes," Vala confirmed with a glance from Sam's boots all the way up and back over to Cameron, "if I'm going to integrate into Earth society, we thought it was very important that I immerse myself in the local cultural offerings." Sam nodded her own affirmation of the alien woman's explanation. Cam put his hands on his hips and looked at Vala with a lifted brow.

"Uh, and by 'local cultural offerings' you mean..." he prompted deliberately with a slight smile.

"Pedicures, mochaccinos and Victoria's Secret." Sam replied. She didn't miss the glint in his eyes when he looked at her after she added the last. She smiled. Vala flicked her hair with a burble of confirmation and Cam chuckled.

"Well, we're scheduled to go off-world in about an hour, and though you both look…_fantastic_," Cam nodded at them as he emphasized the word with a glance towards Sam, "I suggest you might want to lose the heels." he finished with a finger pointed down at their boots and Sam smirked slightly. They all glanced up as klaxxons and warning lights lit up all around them and Chief Harriman's voice came over the tannoy announcing unexpected Stargate activity. Cam motioned with a sweep of his arms. "Ladies first." Sam smiled at him as she moved past him, distinctly aware he was probably watching her from behind and not sure why that was perfectly okay with her.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 3,693 days relative

"Here you go, Jackson, exactly as it is recorded in the data in the Core and the Database." Cam said as he passed the remote to the flabbergasted archaeologist while he stared up the face of the gate tower. "Heliopolis, as was."

"Mitchell, I don't know what to say." he murmured and took the remote in his hands, giving it a quick glance. He looked across the landscape behind them and reached a hand up to his head. "This is amazing. I mean, I knew you and Sam liked to use the simulator to fly in 302s and that you were working on upgrading it, but this..." He stared back at the tall doors and blinked. "You've linked this into the Database?" Cam nodded.

"When you showed me the portions of the Database that were the repository for the Heliopolis archives, well this seemed like a good treat for your birthday." He shrugged and Daniel watched him silently for several moments.

"Thank you, Cameron. I'm truly touched." he whispered in a voice choked with emotion. Cam shook his head slightly.

"You're my best friend, man." Cam muttered with a hand rubbing at the back of his neck. "I know we don't get on sometimes, and that on occasion I just want to wring your neck and that the feeling's mutual, but... I can't do this whole staying sane thing without you."

"Isn't that Sam's job?" he retorted and Cam shook his head.

"No, Jackson, I stay sane _for_ Sam." Cam said, crossing his arms across his chest. Daniel smirked and sighed in understanding. "Don't get me wrong, she does things that help me stay focused and on the straight and narrow," he explained with a flick of his hand ahead of him, "but I'm doing this for her. To be with her. To not be a burden on her. She needs my support as much as I need hers."

"And this is?" Daniel asked with a sweep of his arms at the high doors ahead of them.

"My little contribution to _your_ sanity. If you only do your work in the Database room then you'll snap and kill us all eventually." Cam said mock-earnestly. Daniel chuckled with a smirk.

"That's what I keep telling him!" Vala cried as she walked in through a rectangle hovering in space with Teal'c and General Landry close behind her. "And as amazing as this is, Cameron, I'm not sure I appreciate you giving him a secondary outlet that _isn't_ my bed." She glared from Cam to Daniel.

"Oh, Vala, I'm sure this will be a very distant tertiary outlet." Cam assured her quickly. Vala chuckled and looped her arm in Daniel's after patting Cameron on the cheek. She prodded him forward and they both approached the great doors as they swung inward on silent hinges with barely a touch from Daniel's fingertips.

"This is most impressive, Colonel Mitchell." Teal'c intoned as he surveyed the area intently. "If not for the absence of damage to the structure and surrounding environment and the lack of the scent of sea air, I would believe I was once more on PB2-908."

"Yes, I'm thinking about solutions for the sense of smell." Cam replied and Landry chuckled at him.

"You know, it's probably fine without it, Mitchell." He raised his eyebrows at the younger man with a mock-serious look. "I'd rather you didn't turn this ship into a giant Scratch 'n' Sniff card."

"No, sir." Cam replied smartly before breaking out into a smile as the two men walked past him. He turned to watch his friends entering the building and his smile softened when he felt Sam approaching and slipping her hands around his waist from behind.

"I'm so proud of you, Cameron." she murmured into his ear. He leaned his head in towards her for a moment before reaching across himself and pulling on one of her arms to bring her around in front of him. She sighed with a soft smile and pressed herself tightly against him. "I love how you try your best to take care of us." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and kissed her temple gently.

"I have my own reasons for it, entirely selfish reasons, I assure you." He smiled when she began chuckling softly. She looked up with her eyes shining in the simulated dawn and they then drifted down to his lips, a signal he always caught and responded to. Pulling her in a little closer he nuzzled against her cheek before finding her lips with his. She sighed gently and spread her fingers wide on his back, melting into his embrace. "I love you, Sam. So much." he whispered as she buried her face in his neck. She nodded and made a little sound of reciprocation as he ran his fingers down her long hair. "You're my compass, honey. As long as I'm with you, I know which way is home." She looked up into his eyes for a moment. "Or maybe you're my ley line. The path you follow is the path I will travel, Sam. Always." She reached up with a hand to caress his cheek and pull him in for another kiss.

"I love you too, Cameron." she murmured and her eyes glittered when he smiled. She never failed to affect him with those words. Words he'd waited so long to hear and which still had the power to melt his insides when spoken by her melodious voice. "You say I point the way home for you, but you _are_ my home, you say you follow the path I travel, but I travel to you, you are my destination." She pushed some of his fringe up from his forehead as she looked into his eyes. "I can only hope you never forget that." she said sadly and he frowned softly. She must mean the time reversal she's been working on. He sighed and kissed her again.

"I'll remember. In my heart, I'll remember." he promised. "I'll remember because every time I look at you I'll see the other part of my soul." She nodded as her brows tightened and he kissed her softly on the forehead.

* * *

Stargate Command, September 2010

"Yes, sir, it's exactly what you'll need." Siler told him as he passed him the piece of paper with a name and contact details. Cam smiled broadly as he looked down at the phone number.

"You're the real deal, Sly. Thanks a lot." He clapped the Master Sergeant on the shoulder in gratitude.

"It's the least I can do to get that B20E back up and running, sir." Sylvester pushed his glasses back up with a smile. "If you find you need to do some precision tooling, Colonel..." he trailed off, clearly making the offer. Cam grinned again.

"I'll keep that in mind, Siler," he folded the piece of paper and slipped it into the pocket of his blue BDUs, "but this is a very special car for a very special lady, you know?" Siler nodded. "I want to do as much as I can on my own."

"I understand, Colonel." he replied with a small smile and moved off when Cam gave him a little nod and turned up the corridor with his hands in his pockets.

Cameron didn't even react when he found Vala's arm looped through his once he'd gone a short distance up the corridor. He knew exactly why she was there. General Landry had brought him and Sam into his office after their briefing the day before to effectively order them to get drunk and go dancing. Ordinarily, Cam would be all over that, except this time the General didn't have their best interests at heart. The IOA was hosting a private function at an exclusive ski lodge up in the mountains for the ranking members of the congressional committees with military oversight duties. Someone from the SGC needed to be there and who better than Cam, the leader of its premier team, and Sam, the most experienced member of the entire command. Still, it _might_ be fun.

"Vala..." he began only for her to interrupt him.

"Now hear me out, Cameron." she interjected and continued after he gave her a little nod. "I think it's entirely unfair that you and Samantha were singled out for such an onerous duty as this, and quite frankly, it was done in a rather cowardly manner by General Landry. Now, you know I will always come to your aid, Cameron, _and_ Samantha's. You are both my dearest friends and I will stand at your side no matter what trials and tribulations you have to face."

"Vala," he looked at her askance, "the last time you were in the presence of a United States Senator you implied he wished to increase the size of our fleet because he had room to spare in the front of his trousers."

"And I was right." she replied matter-of-factly, not in the least bit remorseful.

"Senator Fisher got our budget slashed that year." he reminded her.

"Which just makes him a very petty man, Cameron." she countered.

"We had to accept an IOA watchdog in the SGC to get them to contribute to our funding." he added with an edge to his voice. "And one of them knocked seven shades of Hell out of my ass, remember that?."

"Yes, and ultimately you got Samantha to make you macaroons because of it." she replied and he furrowed his brow for several moments as he followed her twisted logic.

"Are you saying that if you hadn't insinuated Senator Fisher lacked sufficient manhood then Sam and I wouldn't be together?" he growled in warning.

"I am a woman of many talents, Cameron, and I move in mysterious ways." preened the former smuggler. Cam drew his lips tight and raised a finger in warning. "I also promise to be on my best behaviour." She glanced at him from the corner of her eye with a raised eyebrow.

"Now see? You could have just said that in the first place." he grumbled. "If you can convince Daniel to take you then you can come." She grinned and squeezed his arm tight as she leaned against his side for a moment before bounding off in search of the linguist. She stopped in her tracks and turned around when a thought struck her.

"So you would have believed me right away if I had just promised to behave?" she asked while looking at him sidelong.

"No, and I don't believe you now either." She came back and gave him a thump on the head as he chuckled. "But I do like to see you making the effort." She smiled at that and bounded off again, pausing at Sam's door which had been Cam's ultimate destination.

"We're going gown shopping later, Samantha." With that she shot off again as Cam turned into Sam's lab to find her looking up in confusion.

"Vala and Daniel are coming as well, I take it?" she asked him finally as he walked over and kissed her softly.

"Mmm. Did you know, Sam," he began as he sat down beside her in a chair she kept nearby for when he dropped by, "you and I are together because Senator Fisher has a tiny todger?" She gaped at him as if doubting his sanity.

* * *

Samantha Carter's house, Colorado Springs, September 2010

Sam watched from her window as Cam got out of his Mustang and paused at the end of her front path while buttoning up the jacket of his dress blues. He turned slightly when Daniel parked his dark red 1948 Willys 'VJ' Jeepster drop-top behind his car and stepped out as well.

"Vala, I don't know about this..." she murmured with a look over her shoulder at her friend. Vala was arranging her hair with a floral decoration above her left ear and spared a moment to flick her eyes in Sam's direction in the mirror hanging on the wall.

"Shush, Samantha, you look fabulous." She turned her head from side to side and gave herself a little approving nod before she turned around. "You and Cameron always go out dressed so casually that I think it's about time he got to see what you look like when you go all out." She walked over to her friend and began prodding the dark silver silk shawl which covered Sam's shoulders over the top of her iridescent taffeta navy blue evening gown. The dress hung from her neck on a silver silk neckline which formed a top-heavy figure of eight as it left a space right over her breastbone. A space currently showing off her platinum ring on its silver chain with her engagement ring looped next to it for good measure. The dress then hugged her figure all the way down past her hips, where a slit began halfway down her left thigh and took the rest of the fabric, accented with silvered bead bursts over its length, right down to her heels to drag behind her with a small train. Vala then reached up to Sam's fringe and teased a few stray locks back into place and made sure her silver filigree hair clips were in just the right place and that the dark silver Chinese style hairpins at the back of her head were secure. "Are you going to do something about that?" she asked, pointing at the glossy dark metal of the clasp around Sam's left wrist, where it sat next to her silver bracelet.

"Oh." Sam lifted her hand up for a moment and the clasp wavered and warped until it looked like a silver watch.

"That's much better." Vala commented as she placed her hands on the hips of her form-fitting, wine red strapless long gown with an empire waistline cinched in gold. "Give me a little turn." she ordered, twirling her finger in front of her. Sam dutifully complied, turning around on her open-toed black flats and showing off the low cut of the back of the dress. "I tell you, Sam, if I were that way inclined, Cameron would have to watch himself around me." She smiled at Sam's embarrassed grin and motioned over to the stand by Sam's front door where her own shawl was draped. Sam handed it over and watched Vala pull her free-flowing locks from under it as she wrapped it around her shoulders, then helped her friend get the dark red, gold and green flower print shawl just right. The doorbell rang just as they were finishing up and Vala batted her hands away and motioned for her to answer the door. She walked over and paused after putting her hand on the door knob. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened the door she scooted over to stay behind it and Vala clucked her tongue at her. Cam grinned at her head as it poked out from behind the door and glanced at Vala with a smile.

"Evenin', I heard there were some fine ladies lookin' to dance the night away somewhere in this neighbourhood. Any chance I could get some directions?" Vala giggled as Daniel just glared at him from his side and walked in, only to stop in his tracks when he spotted the raven-haired woman.

"Yeah... um, hi." he began as he raised a hand to his collar. "You look... you look really good." He cleared his throat and frowned slightly while Vala cocked a hip and looked to the side, giving him a little pose. "Very... very good. Um... I like your shoes." He indicated the almond-toed wine coloured pumps peeking out from under the hem of her gown. She grinned at the nervous look he was giving her as Cam pushed him forward further into the entrance hall.

"Nice save, Jackson. You look lovely, Vala." He smiled and the woman preened a little. Sam closed the door behind him as he walked in, avoiding his gaze with a dusky hue to her cheeks when he turned to face her. She could feel him looking at her, feel his eyes moving over her. "Huhm... Sam, you..." She glanced up at the huskiness in his tone to see his eyes glittering with a hungry fire, dark with need, she flushed an even deeper shade of rose. "You look amazing." he breathed. She let out the breath she'd been holding in unconsciously and glanced down in relief until his hands reached for hers and his thumbs rubbed along the back of her fingers.

"Wait just a minute. I'm lovely, but she's amazing?" Vala cried indignantly from where Daniel was running a finger along her arm. "Objection!" She pointed her finger straight out at Cameron as he turned to her and grinned.

"Sorry, Vala," he began as Sam sidled up behind him and pressed herself against his back to peek over his shoulder at her friend while she slipped her arms around his waist, pressing her silver-lined clutch against the ribbons and medals on his chest, "I'm biased." Vala clucked her tongue and crossed her arms under her breasts, which only had Daniel clearing his throat again.

"You look stunning, Vala." he whispered, which had her smiling immediately.

"Well, that's alright then." she announced before pointing towards the front door. "Onwards to infamy!" she declared and Sam giggled when she felt the rumblings of Cam's groans through his back.

Once Cam had helped her into the passenger seat of his Mustang he moved around the front of the car and paused while a gunmetal grey SUV drove past them before he opened his door and settled into the driver's side. As soon as the engine turned over he turned on the heater so she wouldn't get too chilly before they arrived. After being on the road a good fifteen minutes the silence was starting to get to Sam.

"Cameron? Are you okay?" she asked in concern. He glanced over to her and she could see his eyes glittering like embers in the darkness.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Sam." he breathed. His tone was troubled and Sam's brows creased in worry. She reached across and lay her hand on his forearm.

"You can tell me anything, Cameron, you know that. We'll work it out together." she whispered. He closed his eyes for a moment and drove on in silence until a red light allowed him to look at her for a long moment.

"Sam... the first thing I thought when I saw you in that dress was that I wanted to get you out of it, right there in your hall." His voice was filled with need and she blushed furiously at his words, looking down the road until the light turned green again and Cam drove on. She blinked rapidly as a surge of emotion filled her heart and spread outwards to the ends of her fingers and toes and the tips of her ears. She turned to look at Cameron once more, seeing the clean angle of his jaw in the pulsed light of the street lamps.

"You'll have to be patient, Cameron." she said softly and he smiled despite himself. They drove on into the mountains in much more comfortable silence, broken occasionally with the kind of conversation they could always share with each other at the drop of a hat. As Cam turned off Rampart Range Road onto the private road leading to the lodge, a decidedly evil thought swept across Sam's mind. She smirked and turned to Cameron, leaning close to his ear. "Cameron, this dress that you want to take me out of so badly," she smiled when he grunted in vexation, "it hugs my figure very closely, so closely that I have to be very careful what I wear underneath it." She leaned back again with a satisfied glance at his tense brow and the hard gulp he was forced to take. "Or don't wear, as the case may be." she breathed almost under her breath just as he stopped the car in the curved driveway. His head swivelled sharply to face her and he pierced her with a gaze like blue laser beams. She leaned in again and kissed him teasingly as her fingers gently caressed his cheek.

"You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Chapter 4**

Skies above the Ancient outpost, Antarctica, June 2004

He closed on Prometheus and was almost immediately twisting and banking to avoid glider fire while he opened up with his rail guns on several of them.

"Fox Four, Fox Four." He corkscrewed away while scanning his radar, latching on to another flight of gliders harassing a pair of his squadron's 302s. He muscled his fighter in from the side and opened up again with his railguns, he needed to save his missiles now. "Fox Four." he called over and over while the gliders fell before him. He turned the ship around, his RCS thrusters working hard to compensate for the damaged engine. "How's the engine look, Banks?"

"She's struggling, sir." came the reply and Cam swivelled his head around to get a look at the trail of smoke he was leaving behind and grunted at that, but focused his attention back on the fight, spotting an Al'kesh trailing smoke from a damaged engine beginning a dive against Prometheus, he broke left and homed in on it. "Contact, one bandit on our six." Cam twisted around to see the glider banking in behind them and kicked in with some erratic manoeuvres of his own. He focused on the Al'kesh and selected his last radar guided missile. He spotted a glider coming at him from the other side of the Al'kesh and opened up with guns.

"Fox Four." He spiralled through a blaze of staff cannon fire and managed to clip one of the gliders wings with his guns, sending it tumbling through the sky as an explosion rocked its fuselage. He sighted back on the Al'kesh as he was flying upside down and pressed his thumb down. "Fox Three." He corkscrewed away with the glider on his six following as the alien bomber exploded below him. He turned over with a tight loop and felt a judder from behind him, but knew they hadn't been hit.

"We've lost a turbine." called Banks. He cursed. The shudder must have been the internal powerplant in the port-side thruster failing. The glider on his six blew up only moments later as a 302 streaked in and took up position at Cam's four o'clock. He smiled, reminding himself to buy Major Nash a beer when this was all done, but before he could thank him his favourite voice in the whole world came piping over the radio.

"Heads up, Blue Leader. This is Carter." He nearly rolled his eyes. "We have another bandit incoming." He glanced down at his radar and began selecting the Al'kesh zeroing in on her Tel'tak's position. He saw Blue Two's targeting indicators flash over the Al'kesh as well. Pulling hard on his flight stick he dragged his fighter into position behind the assault bomber.

"I see it, Major." he replied while wrestling against his wounded ship to get a lock. The green reticule spiralling around until it froze and flashed red over the image of the Al'kesh. "Fox Two." he fired his last infrared-guided missile and watched an identical bird, fired by Blue Two, streaking past on his right. They both struck the Goa'uld assault craft's engines and obliterated it as a chain reaction vaporised the entire ship. He twisted the yoke and flew through the fireball. "Splash one Al'kesh!" He passed by the Tel'tak's bow and glanced up through the top of his canopy as he flew by on edge. Seeing a blurred vision of blond locks over a pale face looking his way from the cargo ship's forward view.

* * *

Camelot, September 2010

Sam landed the jumper in a small clearing close to the road and started various lockdown protocols as Vala bounced up out of her seat and bustled over to help a still shaky Valencia out of hers. Teal'c watched both women with a slight smile as he stood and walked over to the rear hatch. They had returned to Camelot a day or two ago, Sam coming by Stargate after flying Viridia to Selenis, and were spending the few days before their expected return to Earth investigating Merlin's Library for references to the new things they'd discovered in Muranis. Vala was eager to visit the nearby villages for any tales of what Merlin might have done around the time of his journey to the Agate Seat. So while Sam and Teal'c travelled with Vala and Valencia, Daniel remained ensconced in Merlin's Library itself, poring over the tomes within for similar references. Cameron was there also, having decided to practice with the unfamiliar dialects of Lantean in the books. Sam just thought he was looking up information about Peredur and Angharad, hopeless romantic that he was.

She thought back to how Merlin had stubbornly refused to use anything but the names by which he'd first called each of them. He said simply that was how he knew them and he was far too old to change his ways. The response had Vala giggling. Sam sighed at that because Merlin's name for the former smuggler was so similar to her real name. She stepped out of the back of the jumper with Teal'c in tow to find Vala rubbing Valencia's back as she leaned heavily against the craft's side.

"I'm not that bad a pilot." she muttered as she walked over and looked at the young woman with a little worry. Valencia glanced up and shook her head.

"No, Dr. Carter, I think I am just not used to travelling in such a manner." She smiled faintly. "All I can remember is the speed we were moving at as we left Galadia and the flames in the window as we came down to the planet." Vala was giggling behind her. "It was a little exhilarating." Sam smiled and laid her hand on the woman's shoulder as she stood up straight.

"Why didn't we just use the Asgard transporters on Galadia?" Vala asked.

"So we do not startle Valencia's people unnecessarily, Vala Mal Doran." Teal'c intoned as he hefted a pack onto his broad shoulder. "A vehicle, no matter how outlandish, is far easier for them to accept than our sudden appearance out of thin air."

"That, and it means we don't have to carry a recording of Daniel saying 'there is no magic' wherever we go." Sam finished with a smile as she gave Teal'c a wink.

"Indeed." he offered with a small nod. For her part Vala put on a mock-indignant glare.

"Are you implying they wouldn't believe me if _I_ said it, Samantha?" she asked in a high pitched voice.

"I don't think they would, Lady Vala." Valencia replied apologetically in Sam's stead. The open-mouthed look of incredulity Vala threw at the young woman was very real and Sam laughed out loud, which only earned her a real-indignant glare from her friend as the young Camelot native began giggling as well.

"Back me up here, Muscles, these people love me and trust me completely, don't they?" she claimed as she turned to face the Jaffa with her hands on her hips.

"I do not believe that to be the case, Vala Mal Doran." Teal'c replied with equanimity, only for Sam to laugh harder. "Although I do feel they think very highly of you personally, they do not count you as an authoritative source. Instead, they regard you with all the honour and respect they accord other travelling bards and entertainers." Vala stared at the Jaffa in shock, only roused from it when Sam wrapped her arms around her.

"They love you, Vala, they just think everything that you say is an entertaining fiction." she said soothingly and the former smuggler closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Damn my beauty and talent." she muttered finally as she returned Sam's embrace. Sam giggled and patted the woman on the back. The four then proceeded onto the road and began walking towards the nearby village. Vala received many waves of welcome, as did Valencia. Several of the village children ran up and greeted Teal'c, he smiled at them all. Valencia led the way to the village's inn while Vala pointed out various people in the streets to Sam and said a few words about each. She had been very busy out and about while Daniel was in the Library. When they entered the large two storey building close to the center of the village, a plump, ruddy faced woman with a broad smile looked up from behind the bar against the far wall and greeted them all warmly. "Hello again, Marta."

"Lady Vala, Teal'c, you're back!" She walked around the bar and gave Valencia a hug. "Valencia dear, you have been working hard these last weeks, haven't you?" She glanced sidelong at Vala who put her hands on her hips in mock-indignation. "And you've brought a new face with you." She smiled at Sam who held out her hand for a shake.

"Marta, this is Dr. Samantha Carter from Earth." Valencia said with a smile as the older woman shook Sam's hand.

"The same place as your Daniel, Lady Vala?" Marta smiled as she looked between Vala and Sam.

"That's right, Samantha and her betrothed, Cameron, are my very dear friends." She beamed and Sam smiled gratefully. Marta lifted her eyebrows at this.

"Is your betrothed here also?" she asked of Sam and it was very clear the woman lived for gossip. Sam shook her head.

"I'm afraid he stayed behind in Camelot. Someone has to keep Daniel out of trouble." she supplied and Marta canted her head to the side.

"Is he not always reading in Merlin's Library? What trouble could he possibly get into in a room full of books?" All of Marta's visitors cringed slightly, even Teal'c.

"I take it you haven't met Daniel yet?" Sam asked hesitantly and Marta shook her head in burgeoning amusement. "Well, he can get into trouble anywhere. In fact, a few years ago he encountered a bounty hunter _in a library_ back on Earth who tried to kidnap him." She turned more serious. "And then there was our first visit to Merlin's Library..." Marta finally nodded in realisation.

"I heard about poor Antonius." She shook her head sadly. "Your betrothed is there as his guardian and keeper then?"

"Something like that." Sam replied with a sad smile. Marta turned back to Vala then indicated a table by the windows. After being seated and ordering a small repast Vala managed to broach the reason for their renewed visit.

"Marta, we're studying the tales of Merlin's journey to the Agate Seat, and any others which are linked to it." she motioned to the seat beside Teal'c and Marta sat down with a smile after a look around the otherwise empty inn. "We're wondering if other stories give a reason for or an accounting of what led to him going." Marta pondered that for several long moments.

"Well, Merlin travelled to the Agate Seat to retrieve the Key of Gems which was hidden there by his ancestor Ailemnu the Builder." she began. "The stories only say the Key was needed to stop the Tilexsuli." She chuckled. "Which is odd isn't it? Because he'd already defeated them at Ar Domûn before he left for the Agate Seat." Sam glanced at Vala and found the woman glancing her way as well.

"Is it mentioned anywhere that Merlin's defeat of the Tilexsuli at Ar Domûn was only a temporary respite?" asked Teal'c only for Marta to shake her head.

"No, it is always counted as their final defeat. Which is why most scholar's think the early passages of the Journey to the Agate Seat were incorrectly transcribed as taking place after the battle. Or that it is not a real accounting because no mention is ever made of the key except in that story. Oh, and in one more, the Return of the Queen. Queen Guinevere was saved by a group of warriors as she travelled to Caerleon, the warriors were on their way to ask Merlin for the Key of Gems, but he turned them down as he did not possess it. That story leads in to the events which end with the battle at Ar Domûn, but most consider it to be fanciful." Valencia frowned.

"Just because the band of warriors included women." She pointed at Vala and Sam. "Both of them are warriors. I'm a warrior too." Marta held up her hands in surrender.

"Peace, child." she remonstrated. "I don't disagree with you. I'm just telling Lady Vala and Lady Samantha what the scholars think." She turned to Vala. "Very little is written about this troop, they had some dealings with Merlin and King Arthur sent them on some quests."

"Do you know their names?" Vala asked only for Marta to shake her head. Sam sighed and looked out the window at the light bustle of activity moving through the village, wondering if they could ever really base such a decision as the one they were trying to make on legends and yarns spun for these people by Merlin himself. She could tell Daniel and Cam were almost certain of it for some reason.

* * *

The Keg Steakhouse, Niagara Falls, Canada, November 2008 (alternate timeline)

She leaned over and swatted at Daniel with a bread stick as Cameron laughed next to her. For his part, Daniel went with looking affronted even though he was entirely at fault. He reached up and brushed the breadcrumbs from his hair and glared at her darkly. Sam laughed while leaning against her love in the chair she'd forced him to push next to hers at their table. They sat in front of the floor to ceiling windows of the restaurant overlooking the waterfalls as they were illuminated by powerful spot lights in the colours of the rainbow, filling their entire view with blues and greens and reds and purples and yellows reflecting off the water spray. She smiled at Daniel who rolled his eyes at her and brushed the remnants of the bread stick onto the small plate at his side.

"Very mature, Colonel Doctor Carter." he intoned gravely and she just stuck her tongue out at him to further prove his point. Cam laughed even harder at that. "You can be quiet too!" Daniel cried with a glare at the man across from him. "You're like a pair of teenagers."

"Fine, _Dad_, sorry." he muttered with a surly shake of his head. "You just don't understand me." he whined and even Daniel laughed at that. "Oh, here comes our food." Cam said brightly when he spotted the approach of a waiter bearing dishes. Sam nearly swooned when she saw her filet mignon wrapped in smoked bacon until she got a look at Cam's sirloin with sautéed mushrooms in cream sauce. She glanced up at him and he glared back, moving his plate away from her slightly. Daniel laughed as his peppercorn strip steak was put in front of him at the look she must have been giving Cameron.

"Oh, I think there will be a little retribution later for that move, Mitchell." Daniel said jovially and Sam glared at the linguist. She looked up at the waiter.

"Could you bring me some more breadsticks, please?" she ordered and the man nodded and moved away. Cam laughed as Daniel looked at her with slightly widened eyes. "That wasn't a nice thing to say, Daniel." she said calmly. Daniel gulped slightly. Cam nudged her slightly and when she looked over she found him holding up a forkful of his steak for her and she smiled at him lovingly before taking it in and chewing at the tender meat and flavourful mushrooms. She purred happily.

"You see, she understands me, Jackson." Cam began as he cut into his steak again. "I will defend my plate to the death, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to give her every chance to sample some of what I've got." Sam burbled contentedly as she leaned across and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Just as I know I'll probably end up eating half of that filet mignon by the end of the night." He smiled softly as he took the bite of her steak she was offering him.

"You two disgust me." muttered Daniel, who then chuckled as he grinned at them. The waiter returned with Sam's new bread sticks and the archaeologist eyed them warily. Sam picked one up and twirled it idly around her thumb with a raised eyebrow in his direction. "Um, change of topic." he murmured wisely before looking up at Sam with a flash of inspiration. "Sam, you said the Navy came to you with a request to build a containment device." Sam chuckled as she put down the bread stick on her plate and resumed her steak cutting.

"That's right. Seems the SEALs succeeded in retrieving the Telchak device." She smiled when Cam began to grumble. "I designed a case that would seal its radiation emissions and still allow some study." she explained. She smiled at the two men with a glint in her eyes. "The best part is I used that as a cover for getting my hands on some of the rarer materials and components for our communicator." She grinned when Cam looked at her askance with a forkful of steak halfway to his mouth. He turned to her and just guided the fork her way and she chuckled before taking the bite.

"Devious woman." he intoned as she smiled and nodded. "This includes the iridium you thought was going to be almost impossible to get?" She nodded. "You have all you need?" Another nod. "You're something else, darlin'." he murmured with a grin.

"Yep. With that iridium I can start making the power coils and the infuser which all need iridium cores and rings." She took a bite of her steak and chewed thoughtfully for several moments. "If I get you the designs can you make me the molds, Cam?" He nodded immediately.

"Shouldn't be a problem." he responded. He turned to Daniel. "Have you managed to find a source for the chromium and vanadium we need?" Daniel nodded.

"In New York... with connections in South Africa for both." he replied. Sam sighed in relief. With those ingots and the titanium they already had she could make an alloy for the framework to house the magnetic field wave guides. "That should be everything we need for the power regulators and induction field generators, am I right?" Sam nodded.

"After I get those put together I'll move to the high capacity transducers for the power generator." Both men nodded while they ate. Sam knew they didn't really understand what they were actually building, though Cam had lately been offering rather sage advice after he looked over her designs. It was odd. Just as they finished their main course they looked up and out the window when the night sky above the falls erupted with fireworks. Sam's eyes filled with delight as she reached for Cam's arm and pulled him tightly to her side. She felt his fingers closing around hers and his thumb ran along the back of her hand. She looked over and saw Daniel staring out into the brightly lit sky and she smiled at the child-like innocence he was showing. She nudged Cameron who looked over when she tilted her head and he smiled as well. It was nice to see their friend with a smile like that.

* * *

Dalziel Lodge near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Sam grinned at him with that evil little smile of hers, but said nothing in reply to his question. She merely leaned back in her seat and held her clutch in her lap with a raised eyebrow. He grumbled dramatically and got out of the car as a valet held the door for him, he settled his cover on his head and waved the other valet off as he was heading for Sam's door. That was his job. He'd stopped the car as close to the red carpet spilling out of the front door of the lodge as he could. Sam's gorgeous dress did not need to have its short train dragged through the gravel of the circular driveway in front of Dalziel Lodge, the exclusive ski resort which catered to a very select and extremely well-to-do clientele. He hadn't thought even the IOA would have enough pull to swing this venue for their little soirée. He walked around to the passenger's side and opened the door, holding out his hand as Sam's right foot snaked out of the Mustang to step onto the red carpeting underfoot. She slid out and he lifted her up so that it all seemed to be one fluid, graceful motion. She smiled gratefully at him as he closed the door and turned around to guide her inside while she slid her hand up to the crook of his arm. His Mustang had never looked better.

"Colonel Mitchell, Dr. Carter, it is good of you to come." said a familiar voice from just outside the door. They both blinked at the sight of Richard Woolsey, but realised that with a full complement of ZPMs in Atlantis and another powering the SGC, there would be no real reason for the trip between Pegasus and the Milky Way to be anything but routine now.

"Mr. Woolsey." Sam greeted him with a nod and Cam did likewise, shaking the man's hand.

"Just as a heads up," Cam leaned in towards Atlantis' current commander, "we let Vala come along." he whispered and pointed at Daniel's Jeepster coming to a stop where his Mustang had just been. "I'm sure she's forgotten all about that thing you did when she first joined." Cam shook his head in mock-reassurance. Sam gripped his arm tightly as he felt her sides trying to contain her mirth. Woolsey looked horrified.

"Colonel Mitchell, I _assure_ you-" he began until Sam couldn't stifle the laughs anymore.

"He's just joking with you, Mr. Woolsey." She grinned at Cam who smiled jovially at the other man then turned to look over his shoulder at Daniel helping Vala out.

"Of course." Woolsey coughed into his hand slightly before glancing at the raven-haired alien. "Will Teal'c also be joining us?" he asked, perhaps now expecting the whole of SG-1 when he'd only requested two of them.

"I'm afraid not," Cam replied, "the T had to return to Chulak after our mission debrief a couple of days ago, for a meeting of the High Council's planning committee."

"Though we expect him back sometime tonight, isn't that what he said, Cam?" she glanced at him with a questioning look and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Baby, I can only keep a single timezone in my head at any one time, and he said he was leaving early morning Chulak time." he grumbled and Sam smiled faintly at him while Vala and Daniel approached.

"Richard!" she cried with a grin plastered across her face. "How are you?" Woolsey smiled and nodded to them both, shaking their hands.

"I'm quite well, Ms. Mal Doran, Dr. Jackson." he waved them on in and walked ahead of them all a few steps. A concierge came around a long counter at the side of the foyer and took Cam's cover and Sam's and Vala's shawls, as well as Daniel's overcoat, which he doffed to reveal his pointed-collared slate grey dinner jacket with a dark indigo dress shirt and silk tie.

"I'll let you have a dance with me, Richard, as long as you promise that your ha-" Vala was a little surprised to find Daniel's hand clamped over her mouth while Cam gave her a warning glare.

"Promises, Vala." he intoned and she sighed and nodded. Woolsey glanced away for a moment and decided to pretend he hadn't heard or seen anything, instead leading them into the large common room of the lodge, with it's highly polished wood floors and high-raftered ceilings.

The room had a large river stone fireplace at one end and a long marble-topped bar at the other. The vast space in between which would normally be filled with islands of cushioned chairs and settees surrounding coffee tables, was instead cleared for the night to provide room for the half dozen or so large round tables set up for the dinner. Even those would be taken away afterwards to make room for the band stage and dancing. Above the door they'd just come through was a large overhanging balcony which yet retained its original seats and coffee tables and would no doubt see plenty of traffic while the dinner tables were removed by the staff. Opposite the door was a long line of French doors leading out onto a wide balcony overlooking the slope behind the Lodge into the forested valley below. On the walls and the columns were everything you'd expect from a mountain lodge decorated in the rustic style, landscape pictures, antlers, paws and other assorted hunting trophies, decoratively polished rifles and cavalry swords. All of it skewing to the hideously expensive and garish. Vala, of course, loved it. She grabbed Daniel's arm and led him on a tour of the place, having him describe to her all the various animals from which the severed body parts were removed. Daniel looked a bit green.

"I should inform you both, Colonel, Doctor," began Woolsey in his full-on bureaucrat mode, with which he must have felt he was getting rusty, because he paused to cough lightly into his hand, "the IOA would be very grateful if you would both take the time to speak with Senator Bancroft at some point during the evening. He's the new Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and I understand, a fan of your work, as they say."

"Should we be talking to him about anything in particular?" Sam asked diffidently.

"Perhaps," he explained, "you could reassure him that the SGC has no expectation of a permanent occupation for Muranis at any point in the near future." Cam frowned slightly, true, Muranis was probably unsalvageable as a permanent facility, as the AI was on the brink of entropic collapse, but the technology housed in it was still of immense value.

"Mr. Woolsey, am I not right in thinking that currently, Selenis is paying for itself? She's a net gain, right?" Cam offered darkly until Sam gave his arm a squeeze.

"The ZPMs we've taken from her stores not only power her facilities, including the shipyard, which slashes the cost of BC-304 production to less than a quarter, but has also allowed us to remove the SGC and Area 51 from the national grid completely. That's a savings of over ten billion dollars a year." Sam added in a more neutral tone.

"All good points which I hope you'll bring up with the Senator." Woolsey countered. "Believe me, Dr. Carter. I want what you want. Truly." Sam sighed and nodded, mollified. "Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I see Ms. Mal Doran speaking with the Chairwoman of the House Armed Services Committee." He began to move off. "I think I should just go see if Dr. Jackson will need a hand."

"Have a little faith, Dick." Cam called after him and Richard gave him a pleading look over his shoulder. Sam leaned into him and pulled him away to the bar, though he was only going to drink a glass or two with the meal.

The dinner was delicious, the company was... excruciating. At least Vala was enjoying herself. Halfway through the meal she had her table and the one behind her hanging off her every word. _And_ she was behaving. Sam was very proud, as was Cameron. After dinner everyone moved up to the second floor balcony which overlooked the main level. Cheese and fruits were served along with drinks while the company conversed in small groups. Sam and Cameron used the time to speak with Chairman Bancroft and the House Appropriations Committee's Ranking Member, Congressman Stevens. Sam reiterated the points she'd listed for Woolsey earlier while adding several more. Cam ate some grapes. They were pretty sweet.

"I understand your points, Dr. Carter, and they are well made," Stevens nodded sagely while the Senator added his own agreement, "but I'm sure you can see our point when we say perhaps we've pushed the boundaries far enough for a while. Hell, we have a base in another galaxy, fighting to liberate it from an alien species I wish I didn't know was real."

"I think what my learned colleague is saying is that perhaps it would be wiser to consolidate for a while," Bancroft added to Stevens' nod, "make sure we can hold what we already have, maybe even scale back slightly." Sam looked down for a moment and Cam outright frowned.

"I was only two years old, Senator," Cam began in a low voice, "back in December '72 when the crew of Apollo XVII came back to Earth." Sam leaned against him slightly. "But I know what my father told me as he bounced me on his knee and watched the scant coverage of it on the news. 'Our horizon just got a little bit smaller,' he said. We didn't land anyone on the Moon again until I went there with SG-1 two months ago." He gave Sam a slight smile, remembering the words they'd shared while taking a walk on the lunar surface just over a month before. "I suppose you might call it insignificant, 'We've been to other galaxies' Sam said to me when we stepped out on that mare." He looked at the two politicians who were staring back silently. "But the Moon is special. For a few years around the time she and I were born, it was our horizon. And when your horizon shrinks you always leave a part of yourself out of reach beyond the new boundary. A part of yourself you can feel, but can't touch."

"That was the Moon for me." Sam breathed and he smiled down at her.

"And me." He glanced over to the Senator and Congressman who looked back with troubled gazes. "I no longer have a horizon, gentlemen."

"Burn the land and boil the sea?" Sam asked with a twinkle in her eye.

"You really do love that show." He chuckled at her before turning serious again when he faced the two men and the small cluster of people who'd gathered behind them as Cam spoke. "Looking back, turning inwards, closing your eyes. They're all options, valid options at that. Understand this though, you'll be leaving behind a small part of your soul out beyond the horizon, where you can't reach it. Even if you've never seen it with your own eyes." They could hear the first strains of the band beginning to practice downstairs. "Now if you'll excuse us, gentleman, I owe Dr. Carter the first, second, third and fourth dances at least. I should really learn to call her bluffs more often when we play poker." Sam grinned and clutched at his arm with a fiercely possessive look.

* * *

Dalziel Lodge near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Sam pulled him away from the small gathering of politicians and bureaucrats and found Daniel nearby giving Cam a look of approval and a nod. Vala was settled a little behind him, still entertaining a rapt audience with tales of less than legal activity. Sam sighed, but at least it was better than actually effecting less than legal activities.

"Having fun, Jackson?" Cam asked as they walked over. Daniel smiled with a look over his shoulder at the former smuggler.

"Surprisingly, yes. _She's_ loving it." He turned back to them. "You know, I think Odyssey turned her from a net consumer of entertainment into a net producer of it."

"We always knew she was an attention seeker, Daniel." Sam added with a smile and Daniel chuckled and nodded. "I guess her tastes in attention have just shifted."

"How about you guys? Having fun?" He looked between them both as Sam glanced at Cameron.

"My friend," he began with a flick of his head towards the wooden balustrade as the sounds of practice from the band downstairs became more pronounced. "this party is only just about to kick off."

"You really do like to dance, don't you?" Daniel offered with a smirk and Cam just grinned.

"I really like to dance with Sam." he replied and she turned bright crimson and looked away from them both as Daniel turned to face her with a knowing smile.

"Don't look at me like that, Daniel. Vala is going to be expecting you to dance with her." she declared when she finally turned a glare on the archaeologist.

"That's right, Daniel. I expect you to dazzle me with your Earth mating rituals." Vala elaborated as she came up behind him and slipped an arm through his.

"It's always about mating rituals with you, isn't it?" Daniel asked with a sigh of exasperation. She tilted her head slightly.

"No, it's more often about the loot, but seeing as _someone_ doesn't let me actually _keep_ any, then I'm just left with my fall back position." Vala replied with a grin for Sam at the end.

"Woman's got a point, Jackson." Cam dead-panned to Sam's laughter.

"Are you suggesting I let her keep some of the artifacts we discover?" Daniel asked incredulously.

"No, I'm suggesting you accept the fact that you turned our lovely Vala from an interstellar thief into a productive member of society. Take responsibility for your actions, Jackson." Cam said seriously which had Vala grinning.

"You broke it, you bought it." Sam added with a smirk. Daniel looked at her in horror and Vala laughed out loud. Cam turned to her with a wince.

"Oh, baby, I wasn't going to put it like that." he said with a faint cringe at the end. Sam kissed him softly.

"Sometimes, Daniel needs a kick in the pants, sweetie." she murmured in reply. Daniel wasn't happy to hear that and frowned heavily at them.

"Right. I don't want to see you two for a while. Go on, get!" He made shooing motions in their general direction. "Go dance your feet off, crazy kids." Sam smiled and walked over to give Daniel a kiss on the cheek and a quick hug for Vala. Cam gave them both a little salute before taking Sam's hand in his and leading her around the balcony towards the little staircase in the corner of the room beyond the fireplace. They weren't the first couple to arrive back downstairs, there were certainly some bureaucrats present who, by dint of inebriation or a sense of high spirits, were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to dance. Once a good group had gathered before the stage the band leader turned and made introductions to polite applause and eased the company in with something gentle and melodic, which suited Sam just fine because it gave her the chance to lean in close to her beloved. She was a little surprised at how much he had improved since just the last time they were on Urdijina.

"Cameron. You were _not_ this good two weeks ago." she murmured as he led her across the floor surprisingly gracefully. "Not that I'm complaining, of course." she added to his chuckle.

"I had a good teacher it turns out. In another timeline." he replied with a soft smile as he looked into her eyes which widened in realisation while she flushed a dusky rose.

"I taught you?" she asked quietly and he nodded. "I haven't remembered that yet." she muttered disconsolately and he chuckled.

"Then you haven't remembered the stepping on toes and trips and stumbles and falls..." he trailed off and she could only smile.

"I would rather be overturned by you, than driven safely by anyone else." she said with a smile and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Austen?" he asked and she gaped slightly. "Hey, I took English Lit." he grumbled. And she smiled, laying her head on his shoulder. "Grandma wouldn't stand for me not reading all my assigned books." She giggled.

"Especially not Austen." She lifted her head to see him nodding slightly with a grunt and laid her head back down. She reminded herself to thank Grandma Mitchell again for helping to turn out such a fine man.

They spent the next hour or two dancing, up-tempo or slow, it didn't matter, Sam lost herself in Cam's eyes. Vala had to pry him away to get a dance of her own with him and she had to grin as she and Daniel took a turn at a lively dance. She narrowed her eyes when she saw Cam approaching the band leader's podium and whispering to him and she frowned outright when he turned back and smiled _The Smile_ right at her. He beckoned with his fingers and she moved towards him.

"Cameron..." she warned as she took his proffered hand and he pulled her along, not to the dance floor, but outside onto the balcony. She tilted her head in curiosity, but smiled when he unbuttoned his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. "What are you up to, Mitchell?" she asked only for him to tilt her chin up slightly and kiss her lips softly. He pointed up at the starry sky and the Moon partly occluded by a long drift of clouds. She widened her eyes as the first clarinets and muffled saxophones began playing. She grinned as he held out his hand and took her into his arms to turn her around to the music drifting out to them in the glow of the waxing Luna overhead. "Moonlight Serenade?" She shook her head slightly before pressing her cheek against his. "I love you so much, Cameron." she breathed. She didn't need a reply from him, the feel of his hands on her lower back, the warmth of his chest against hers, his feet guiding her in the slow lazy circles they were taking around the wide open balcony told her everything she'd ever need to know about how he felt for her. She kissed his neck gently and closed her eyes, hoping the song would never end.

However, every man has a limit to his patience, and she could tell Cameron's was approaching fast. Every time he glanced her way after they returned inside she could tell the only thing he saw was the dress, and that she was still in it. As if he'd called her name she found herself glancing in his direction and a silent nod was the only signal he'd ever need. With a nod to Vala and Daniel, who were still dancing, Sam and Cameron made their way to the front and the chill September night. Sam was adjusting her shawl as the valet drove up with the Mustang. Cam helped her in and thanked the valet for having the forethought to start the heater going before they set off back down the mountain. They didn't notice the gunmetal grey SUV turn its engine over and switch on its lights as they came out from the private road.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Chapter 5**

Andrews AFB, Maryland, July 1997

_Dear Cameron,_

Sam looked at the salutation for several long moments after she wrote it. She lifted her pen to tap the end of it at her temple. She meant it. If she could ever admit it to herself, she actually meant more. She just wondered if he would feel she had the right. She'd hurt him. And then, after she'd realised he'd been right about Jonas, after the man had proved himself to be exactly as Cam had described him, she hadn't called on him. She hadn't known what she could do to make up for it. She looked up from the letter pad on her lap and glanced around the lounge at the various officers relaxing while they waited. She looked back down at the lightly patterned writing paper and sighed.

_I'm writing to you because I've been assigned to a new command in Colorado and I don't know if I'll get a chance to tell you what I need to after this. I hope I can explain to you how much I regret what happened the last time we spoke. Regret isn't a strong enough word._

She lifted the pen again and clicked the button a few times as she frowned slightly. She moved her hand back down and flicked the pen back and forth in her fingers. This was far too hard.

"Sam?" She froze at the sound of the voice to her left and turned her head slowly to look up. He stood there in his dress blues, his cover in his left hand, a duffel in his right. Sam blinked as she drew in a slow breath while he lifted his duffel and dropped it in a seat nearby.

"Cameron?" she breathed as she stood up and turned to face him. He looked down at his cover, turning it around in his hand before looking up slowly, following the line of her calf and the blue skirt up her thigh, then taking in the curve of her hip and waist only vaguely hidden by the cut of her jacket. She blushed as his eyes travelled further up, over the medals and ribbons on her chest and up the line of her collar and throat, taking in the short cut of her hair against the side of her neck and jaw. Up her flushed cheek to meet her gaze. Her eyes hadn't missed how he filled out the dress jacket of his service blues either, or the gold leaves on his broad shoulders, or how the muscles in his neck and jaw were flexing slightly as he watched her. She thought he was angry until she caught his eyes. There was no anger in those sparkling baby blues. Only a vague melancholy.

"Sam..." he whispered hesitantly and when she saw his arms open slightly the distance between them vanished as she was in his arms before she knew she was moving. She felt his arms around her shoulders and her breath caught in her lungs and she nearly let out a short giddy laugh as she pressed her cheek against his neck. "I missed you." A tear rolled down her cheek when she heard his soft words.

"Cameron, I'm so sorry." She felt him shaking his head. "No, Cameron!" She pulled back slightly so she could look into his eyes. "I'm sorry." His jaw clenched slightly then he pulled her back towards him and clutched at her back tightly.

"I don't want to talk about that. I just... I want our friendship back, Sam." he said and she nodded.

"I want that too, Cam. I've missed you as well. Missed your friendship." She pulled back again and lifted the pad she was still holding. "I was writing you a letter..." she began, but trailed off, letting the pad drop in her seat. She tucked the pen into her pocket and looked up at him. "I suppose I've been trying to write it for years. I never get very far."

"I've been writing you a letter as well." he muttered. "I always go a little too far." She looked at him curiously for a moment and he just smiled faintly. "So what brings you to Andrews? If you have a little time then maybe we can grab a coffee and something to eat at the mess?" Sam smiled and nodded, turning to the seats she put her pad back in her own bag and hefted it after picking up her cover. Cam picked up his duffel again, tucked his cover between his ribs and the elbow of his weighed down arm and motioned for them to begin walking towards the commissary.

"I have a few hours still before my flight." she offered as he fell into step with her. "I've been assigned to a new command out of Cheyenne Mountain." He blinked at her.

"You're leaving the Pentagon for Colorado Springs?" He looked thoughtful at her nod. "Doing what?" She didn't respond for a moment. This was like a repeat of five years before. He had the same look in his eyes, wondering how this would get her closer to being an astronaut. She hated so much having to lie to him.

"Deep Space Radar Telemetry analysis." She cringed at his small grunt. "Cameron, trust me when I say I'm on the right path. I will succeed-" she stopped when he put his hand on her forearm as they walked into the refectory.

"Sam, you're a lot smarter than I am, I'm sure that if you say this is the right thing for you to do, then it is." He looked into her eyes for a second. "I trust you." He led her inside after giving her a smile which left her flushing lightly. She blinked a few times before regaining her wits.

"I know you think I've given up, Cam-" she froze when he whirled on her with fiery eyes.

"I think no such thing, Sam." He drew his lips tight and turned away for a moment. "I tried... to get more information about what you were doing. I suppose I was... well... it didn't matter because the few times I tried I got a concussion from running into the massive walls that sprung up out of nowhere." She blinked and looked away, he reached over and flicked her cheek so she'd face him again. "Your 'research project' wasn't just research, Sam, I know that. I can read between the lines. Whatever this is... it's important." He smiled at her again, that smile that never failed to get her heart going.

"Cameron..." she began softly as he raised his hand up.

"Hell, I'll just be happy if I can call you." He pulled her forwards by the elbow towards a table where they dropped their duffels and hats.

"You know, they have this new-fangled thing these days, called a 'computer'." she offered with some air quotes and grinned at his glare. "And on these... 'computers', you can use this thing called 'email' to send messages over 'the Internet' to anyone who also has access to a 'computer'." She sprinkled air quotes liberally as he turned to face her.

"If you're not careful, 'Sam', I will 'kick' your little 'ass' all over this 'mess'." His use of air quotes had her laughing instantly, she'd never thought of using them on someone's name. She reached up and grabbed at his air quoting fingers and held on to his hands until he smiled crookedly at her. It was her turn to lead him onwards.

"So why are you at Andrews? And when did you become a Major?" She let her fingers fiddle with the gold leaf on his right shoulder as he piled some fruits onto his tray and held up a banana enquiringly. She nodded and he put it on her tray.

"Just last week actually." he replied with a smile.

"Congratulations, Cam." She beamed at him and put her hand on his arm. He smiled in return.

"I'm here Stateside because of it. I was meeting some of the brass for an evaluation interview. It must have gone okay as you can see." He smiled slightly. "Heading back to Kadena now, via Edwards." Sam paused as she picked up a bowl of blue jello which had inexplicably, to her mind anyway, remained uneaten by anyone else, much to her delight. She watched him as he looked appraisingly at the pecan pie then glanced down and drew her lips into a tight line.

"Are you on a set schedule to get back to Okinawa?" she asked softly. He looked over to her, but she dared not look up.

"No, actually I have a week's leave. I was thinking of looking around the Sequoia National Forest to the north of Edwards." he replied gently. Her shoulders slumped slightly. "It was just a thought though. I'm not married to the idea or anything." She looked up at that, seeing his eyes with the twinkle of a smile that she hadn't seen since leaving the Gulf. She blinked rapidly and cleared her throat.

"Maybe you'd like to visit with me for a while?" she asked hesitantly. "It's been such a long time and I think... we have a lot of catching up to do... more than just a few hours at Andrews can fit in." He watched her for several seconds before looking down at the pecan pie again.

"If you think you can put up with me for a few days, I can't think of anything I'd like more." At his reply she let out the breath she'd been holding in, only for her eyes to widen in alarm at what she'd just done. She didn't have a house yet! She had been planning to stay on base for a while. She closed her eyes and winced. She couldn't back out now though. She just couldn't! "Did you get yourself a place with a spare room?" She glanced up in a little bit of a panic. "Well, that's no biggie, I can always stay on your couch." His smile faded into a look of confusion, then one of incredulity. "You don't..." She shook her head and he held a hand up to his forehead as she bit her lip. "I swear, Sam," he began chuckling, "brain the size of a planet, but absolutely no common sense." She punched his arm with a glare as he laughed. "Tell you what, how about I help you look for a place? It'll give us time to catch up and I can make sure your house doesn't end up being a lab with a cot in a lean-to for you to sleep in." She reached up and thumped his head even though she was smiling inwardly.

* * *

P8Y-028, May 2007

Sam sat down against the tree with her P90 resting in her lap. She glanced over at Teal'c as he walked slowly around the small cluster of broken columns and stone walls which marked the ruins Daniel was currently besotted with on this, their first mission since their return from Orilla and P3X-474. She again let her eyes fall along the wide strip of grey hair which ran along his right temple, the indelible proof of over fifty years spent living aboard Odyssey. Fifty years which never happened for anyone but him. Vala was trying to engage him in conversation again, obviously fishing for clues as to what might have happened aboard that ship, but he only smiled at her. If any more proof were needed that Teal'c had actually spent half a century living with Vala, it was the fact he had yet to kill her despite her persistent interrogations over the past few days. She smiled at that then closed her eyes. She could sense Cam approaching from behind the tree after his perimeter check. Even though he moved soundlessly through the soft loamy forest trail she could feel his presence in her bones. She sighed softly as a small smile played across her lips when he stopped next to her and crouched down beside her. She glanced over to see him watching the two aliens talking to each other. Or at least Vala talking and Teal'c absorbing her entreaties.

"We're never gonna get anything out of him, are we?" he asked as he stretched out a leg from under him and leaned back against the tree next to her. She had yet to take her eyes off him, even as he took off his patrol cap and ruffled at his hair. She just watched the small movements of his face, the small gestures of his hands and fingers as he checked over his P90. He hadn't even noticed that he'd sat down right next to her with their shoulders touching. To be honest, she hadn't either until that moment, it hadn't struck her as odd. It made her wonder about the reason behind that. The reason behind the familiarity she felt in his presence.

They'd known each other a long time, she'd had a huge crush on him for most of that and they'd enjoyed a fairly casual affection with each other since the Academy. They weren't touchy-feely or anything, but sometimes the contact just came naturally between them. They'd hug easily, without awkwardness, he'd rest a hand on her shoulder as he looked over at something she was showing him on her laptop, they'd steal food off each others plates and swat at each others hands to keep the other at bay, they'd find themselves sitting together during team movie nights, with Sam quite often draping her legs over his as they stretched out.

However, none of that compared with the simple _rightness_ she'd been feeling in his company since the mission on Odyssey. Before she would have at least felt some fluttering in her stomach, a slight nervousness being so close to him, the lingering attachment of her crush, she supposed. But since then it felt different. She unconsciously found herself gravitating towards him, instinctively sat beside him or stood next to him whenever they were together and she never felt awkward about it. And neither did he. It was as if her presence was just something he expected to have right next to him, just as she felt the right place to stand or rest was wherever he was. She sighed and turned away to watch Teal'c once more.

"No, I don't think we will." she replied with a slight frown. "Teal'c believes he is doing the right thing, moreover it's something we asked him to do." She looked again at Cameron and he was gazing back at her. "He promised us and he won't betray that trust." Cameron nodded and looked over at Daniel, brushing away at a stone plinth laid across the forest floor amidst several broken columns.

"I would have gone crazy, Sam, I'm sure I would." he murmured without looking over at her. "I wouldn't have lasted five years cooped up on a ship, let alone fifty. Not without something to ground me." She found herself holding her breath, wondering what he meant. "I either did myself a mischief, as my Grandma would say, or I..." his jaw clenched and his eyes became turbulent. Sam felt the colour rising in her cheeks until she turned away to look out over the forest. "Something happened, Sam." he said hoarsely. "I don't know what, but I can feel it deep down."

"Something important." she breathed hesitantly. She could sense him nodding from beside her without needing to look over. She felt the same as he did. It was an impossible feeling, Hell, everything she'd been feeling the last few days was borderline impossible. Knowing she'd found a way to _reverse time_, even if it was just in a localised field, left her speechless. That alone was impossible according to everything she knew about the laws of physics. She _broke_ the universe and she was certain she had to have had powerful motivation to have found a way to do it. She felt horrible just thinking about it, but she was sure she'd never have lasted fifty years on such a problem with only the fate of herself and her friends on the line, even with the legacy of the Asgard. Something had been driving her which she had been powerless to deny. She glanced at Cam again as he sat watching their teammates pensively. Something important. Something which would drive her to conceive of the inconceivable. Frankly, she wondered how the thought had even entered her head.

"I don't know what it was, Sam," Cam's words broke her out of her reverie, "but I intend to find out eventually." He turned to face her again and she met his gaze with a mirror image of his own intense look. "I need to know what saved me."

* * *

Viridia, Perseus Arm Supergate 11, Nonsecti 1421 AL (Lantean years after Exodus)

Sam blinked at the flood of colour and sound that washed over her as she emerged from what had seemed to be a wormhole. That wasn't what she'd been expecting when she lay down next to Cameron in their quarters aboard Galadia in orbit over Camelot. She'd noticed his band had been glowing slightly as she slipped in beside him and draped an arm over his chest. She wondered as well, if her clasp had somehow put her in REM sleep as soon as she closed her eyes.

"Hey, sweetness!" Cam called from beside her as soon as she could focus again, she smiled at how excited he seemed. "You just missed them putting the last touches on Viridia's intergalactic hyperdrive upgrade. It was the coolest thing. I'm _so_ going to add one of those thingamajigs to Galadia when we get back to Selenis." He grinned with a teasing glint in his eye. "Don't you wish you'd come to bed sooner now?" She chuckled as she slipped her arms around his waist and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I do. I'd like to have seen what they did to Viridia." she replied as he kissed her forehead and wrapped her in his arms. "Maybe we should try and figure out if we can replay some of these memories at a later date." Cam made a noise of assent as she pulled away slightly and looked around Viridia's bridge. Ilemus was looking out into the depths of space with Artros and Larensera sitting casually at the forward stations. Jenavia was in the command chair, her eyes closed as the long fringe of her wavy brown hair swept over her face in the too bright light of the vast star field which was projected above her.

"I gotta do that more often." Cam murmured. He walked over to stand on the short dais and pointed at a star with a blue box around it. "That is Kariala's home star." he mentioned with a quick glance her way. She scrutinised it and nodded, there were no labels, no writing, no information of any kind around the image. Just the box and a blip representing Viridia closing in from a position far below the galactic plane. "They haven't mentioned a name yet, annoyingly." he groused and she chuckled. They glanced forward as they felt Viridia entering hyperspace. Sam walked over to where Ilemus was standing and gazed out the forward views. They were definitely travelling far faster than Galadia's top speed in hyperspace.

"So they did leave Muranis in Viridia, why did they bring her back instead of returning to Atlantis in her?" she asked only for Cam to shrug his shoulders with a wry smile.

"~Viridia, what's our estimated time of arrival?~" asked Ilemus from beside her, forestalling any other suppositions they could make. Sam glanced over at him as he gazed out into space then up at the ceiling when the ship responded.

"~Approximately twelve minutes and twenty-eight seconds.~" Viridia answered in her breathy voice. Sam frowned slightly, the clasps were probably translating time intervals and such things into the human equivalent. She chuckled as she realised Cam making his clasp act as a watch probably made that possible.

"That's fast, that star isn't close to the Supergate. Galadia would take a several hours to cover that distance." she said as she turned to face Cameron. He nodded.

"She's not even straining the engines." he noted with a glance back at Jenavia. Sam blinked, wondering how he could tell that.

"~Ilemus, I'll just say again that this is dangerous. I know you believe Kariala will be in a low power mode as Muranis was, but we have far less information about Kariala's state.~" Artros mentioned from his seat as Larensera got up and walked over to the control chair to stand over Jenavia.

"~I understand, Praediae. Her open configuration allowed far easier opportunities for egress so no one stayed to release the attack programs upon the repository to clear it of infection.~" Ilemus shrugged. "~It only means we must sever the connection now ourselves. However, I am certain Kariala will have powered down as well.~" Artros frowned.

"~How can you be certain of that?~" he asked pointedly. "~We don't know what the Indesta have done. We don't know how they got past our security in the first place.~" Ilemus looked at him with a slight smile.

"~I know because that is what we agreed would happen.~" he replied to Artros' confusion. "~We put in place more than one layer of security against possible Indesta sabotage attempts. One of the most secret were the shutdown codes embedded in the deep matrix of each facility's processing cortex. Unless they arrive in Selerinus together and on schedule they would power down after a set interval of time.~" Artros frowned darkly.

"~Why was this hidden from the Praesedis?~" he growled angrily. Sam watched him in concern and even Larensera seemed slightly taken aback. Ilemus sighed sadly.

"~You said it yourself, Praediae. We don't know how they got past our security measures.~" he replied softly. The soldier bristled furiously. "~Please, Artros, I am not implying any failing on the part of the Praesedis. We just felt we could not take any chances.~" Artros raised a hand to cover his eyes as he visibly struggled to regain control of his emotions.

"Sheesh, I'm glad I'm kinda sorta out of phase right now." Cameron muttered and Sam had to smile and give him a swat on the back of the head.

"~We're here.~" called Jenavia as the Alteran ship came out of hyperspace and slid into orbit around a planet gilded in silver ice and mottled patches of light lavenders and greens. She added a small twist along the ship's axis to bring the planet up high above their heads as it filled the top of the forward views. "~Prinpare Domunis.~" Sam glanced over at Cameron.

"Domain of the First Fathers?" he asked and she shrugged slightly with one shoulder. "We'll ask Jackson later." he said with a dismissive wave.

"~Kariala is coming up just beyond the arc.~" added the young engineer in the command chair. Larensera placed a hand on her shoulder and Jenavia lifted hers to pat it gently. Sam turned to look out the forward view and felt Cam sidle up next to her. They looked carefully at the hazy boundary of the planetary atmosphere and the darkness of space until a silver needle reflected the sharp light of the star shining from below Viridia. They approached it quickly and Sam began to discern structure to the shape. Cam put an arm behind her back to rest a hand on her opposite shoulder and she lifted a hand to brush her fingers along the back of it. They carried on watching in silence as the hooked silver tine grew to span multiple sections of the forward view and continued to grow.

"Just how big is that thing?" Cam asked and Sam shook her head. Kariala still continued to grow as they approached until they began to notice the lines and spires of towers underneath the 'hook' at one end of Kariala, this seemed to be their destination and Viridia was still closing the distance with alacrity. The other end of the 'spear' was now far outside their view. Sam smirked at the recollection of how she'd called Kariala a 'winged spear' after receiving the rush of information from Muranis. "Those are buildings, it's a city like Atlantis." Cam muttered and she nodded.

If the scales were similar then Kariala had to be some fifty kilometers long from this 'hook' to the other end. The hook itself looked to be at least five kilometers high and towered high above the tallest spire. Sam's eyes swept along the raised spines that seemed to lie flush against the curved outer hull of Kariala as it held the city in a hollow under the hook. She walked along the curved arc of windows and followed the line of the spines all the way into the distant vanishing point of Kariala's far end. Viridia finally flew over the lip into the deep valley, which was easily three times the length of Selenis' hangar bay, though limited to Kariala's relatively modest beam of just over two kilometers. The cluster of towers and other buildings nestled at the end, under the rippled mirror of the inner surface of the hook which tapered off to a point high above them. Sam looked at the surface carefully and thought she could make out what looked like faint lines in the mirrors. Cracks? That didn't sound likely.

"I think that hook can come down to cover this hollow." Cam murmured and Sam looked at him and then to the end of the hollow as the shaft of Kariala filled out into a cylinder once more. She had to agree. "Look, Sam, the Supergate." He pointed down past Viridia's prow and Sam saw that the 'floor' of the valley had a mile wide circle cut out of it, and inside was nestled the twisting ring of Kariala's Supergate with a view of the stars visible through the center of it.

"The eye of the needle." she breathed, then glared up at the 'hook' overhead as it ruined her metaphor.

* * *

Rampart Range Road near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Sam slipped off her flats, reached into her purse for the small velvet bags she'd placed in there earlier and began to slip her earrings off and tuck them away. She did similarly with her bracelet and hair clips and put all the small bags back inside her clutch and opened the strip of light to slip the entire thing safely away. She imagined she wouldn't have a lot of time once Cam got her home. She flushed involuntarily at the thought. She sighed deeply, wondering how it was that this man could still make her feel like a teenager so easily. She looked over and leaned across to run the back of a finger along his jaw, it brought a slight curl to his lips and she smiled faintly. A smile which quickly disappeared when Cam frowned with a glance up into his rear-view mirror. He narrowed his eyes when a bright light was reflected back into his face and Sam cried out when the Mustang took a huge shunt from behind, forcing Cam to wrestle the bucking wheel in his hands.

"Cameron!" she yelled, turning her head to look behind her at the bright headlights of an SUV behind them. She was thrown back against the seat again when the SUV smashed into them a second time. "What the Hell?"

"Call it in, Sam. And call Daniel too just in case." Cam counter-steered to regain control then floored the accelerator, leaving the SUV behind. Sam drew the strip and reached in for her phone. She brought it up, flipped it open and waited a few moments for the phone to recover from being in stasis. She cursed loudly. "What?"

"No signal!" she cried and he glared at her for a second before turning back to look at the road. He hit the brakes, down-shifting as he went and swung the wheel around to take a tight corner. "Cameron, look out!" she cried as the SUV closed in on them rapidly. Cam floored it again and powered away, sparing the Mustang another shunt.

"What do you mean no signal? They put cell towers all along these roads years ago." he muttered darkly and she just turned the cell to face him and he cursed as well at what he saw. "Grab mine and check it too." Sam did so, slipping her phone back in and grabbing Cam's, she slid the screen up only to groan again a few seconds later. "Radio." She reached in and grabbed a spare radio and checked its frequencies, hearing only static. Still she brought it up to her lips on the frequency usually open for military transmissions by the SGC.

"SGC, this is Dr. Carter, do you copy?" she called into it and waited. "They must have some sort of broad-spectrum jammer." she grumbled, only to lose her grip on the radio when they took another shunt from behind. It skittered into the footwell and under her seat as she was forced to grab the handhold on the door. Cam regained control and started up-shifting on the long stretch to pull away from the car behind them. She glared at him. "Why'd you brake so hard on that bend?" He snorted.

"Baby, the Mustang is a muscle car not a grand tourer," he muttered glancing into the side mirror, "she's built for the quarter mile not mountain hairpins." Sam turned her head to watch the SUV closing in when she felt Cam braking and down-shifting with a little pump on the gas pedal. "I'll try some tricks I picked up in Japan."

"We're going to have a talk about getting a grand tourer." She lifted her eyebrow when Cam glanced her way then laughed.

"Planning to make a habit of getting chased down mountain roads, Sam?" he joked while she glared at him. The SUV was still catching up and Sam was about to tell him as she turned to find the upcoming bend right in front of them and the Mustang still barrelling along.

"Cam!" she cried in warning only for a quick motion of Cam's legs to have the Mustang kicking its back end out as he counter-steered into the tight hairpin. She yelped with wide eyes when she looked out her side window to see the SUV bearing down straight for her only for the Mustang to quickly slip around the corner. "Yes! More like that!" she ordered as he chuckled. Maybe they could get off the mountain after all. Instinct had her ducking her head when she heard shots and several bullet holes appeared in the rear window and windscreen. Cam cursed like a sailor. She could understand why, as if smashing into his car wasn't enough now they were shooting at it, mistake number one. She formed the strip and reached her hand in only to frown heavily. "Cam, where are the guns?" she asked. He turned to her with a frown of his own. "No! You didn't actually do what I told you to do, did you?" His frown didn't change. She cursed herself for telling him not to carry the contents of Selenis' armoury in the strip of light unless they were on a mission. "You took out everything?"

"Pair of CZ 85s." he said and she reached in to draw out the guns. "They're mine." She glanced at him. "And yes, I have a concealed carry permit." She laughed out loud.

"Cam, I'm not sure how the state of Colorado would rule on that when it comes to pocket dimensions." She checked that the magazine in each weapon was loaded and pulled back the slide on each, setting the safeties for condition one. "Anything else?"

"Just the big stuff." he muttered. She blinked. "No, Sam, you cannot fire a Stinger inside my car, and a Mk. 19 won't fit in the back either." She tried to imagine setting up a 40mm automatic grenade launcher in the back seat of Cam's car. Ordinarily, it would have brought a smile to her face, but right now it would actually have been nice to be able to do it. "And there's no point even thinking about the RG/BBT, it's disassembled and we'd need four Marines or one Teal'c to get it out."

"Cameron! You have a _static railgun emplacement_ in the pocket dimension?" She gaped and stared at him in incredulous amazement. He grunted in the affirmative.

"I know they're not covered by the concealed carry permit," he joked, "but it's not as if anyone will find them on me. And remember, disassembled." He pitched the wheel around to drift them around another bend while weapons fire rained towards them, shattering the rear screen completely and the left side rear quarter-panel. "Son of a bitch!" She turned her head to try and spot the SUV, but she was never going to be able to draw a bead like this.

"Roll down your window, honey. Next corner." he said and she looked down the road, seeing the turn to the right and catching on to what he was saying. She quickly turned the handle to bring the window down and when he flicked the back end of the Mustang out she flicked the safeties on the pistols and opened up through her window, sending several shots through the SUV's windscreen and forcing the driver to juke sideways. "That's what I'm talking about. We keep this up and we'll make it off the mountain. As long as they don't have anyone else-"

"CAMERON!" she yelled in fury. He winced as he realised what he'd just done. Sure enough they began to hear the high pitched whine of a motorcycle engine. "Ass!" He held up his hand and she put one of the CZ 85s in it. With a flick of the back end and reverse wheel lock he pitched the Mustang into another drift and aimed over his left arm through his window. He grumbled when he realised he hadn't rolled it down, but looked away and fired anyway, shattering the glass. He hooked the gun's barrel on the wheel, quickly sent out his left elbow to take the window out and aimed again, firing at the SUV just as a low slung rider on a black Honda Fireblade swung out from behind it.

Cam pulled the wheel back and floored the pedal once out of the corner, but the motorcycle ate up the ground by going much more quickly through the bends. The bike started edging up alongside and Cam took the gun in his left hand and stuck it out the window to fire in the general direction of the motorcycle, forcing the rider back. He handed the now spent gun back to Sam and got ready to flick the back end out around the next bend. Sam was almost finished reloading, with a new clip she'd taken from the strip of light, when she heard the bang of one of the rear tires being shot out by the motorcycle rider who flew past the weaving Mustang as Cam desperately wrestled it for control.

"Cam!" she called as he lost the battle and the Mustang began to spin. The SUV gunned its engine and ploughed into the rear quarter-panel, bouncing the rear end of the car up and flipping it onto its roof to slide off the road into the trees. It bounced off tree trunks and rocks, spinning on the roof and tearing into the hard earth. When Sam could once again tell what was happening she was slumped down on the crumpled roof with her head and shoulders pressed painfully into broken glass and twisted metal. She reached up to her side to undo her seat belt and fell down with a cry of pain. She turned her head to see Cam hanging upside down from his seat, unconscious and with blood streaming into his hair from a cut in his forehead. He must have slammed his head against the steering wheel while they were ricocheting through the trees like a pinball. "Sweetie?" she called weakly as she saw his eyelids flutter.

"Sam?" he shook his head slightly as he groaned and turned to face in her direction. She sighed in relief and reached for his hand. "Honey, hide it." he croaked and she frowned in confusion. He grabbed her left wrist and tapped her watch. She blinked and realised what he was talking about. The barest thought had it changing into several multi-coloured twine friendship bracelets tangled together. Innocuous, worthless and hard to get off normally. "Nice." he groaned and she saw the same thing appearing on his wrist. He reached up to undo his safety belt only to find it was jammed. Before she could say anything she heard her door being pulled open with a loud keening groan of straining metal and rough hands grabbed at her legs. "Sam!"

"Cameron!" she cried as he reached for her then turned his head from side to side. He reached away and started pawing for the CZ 85 lying close to the shattered rear-view mirror. She was dragged out and lifted to her feet by a massive man in a long black leather coat. She struggled and kicked at him, but he held her tightly with her arms pressed to her chest. He must have been a Jaffa, too strong for a human. Another group of men approached with guns trained on them and Sam stilled to glare at the man in the lead. "Tergali." she muttered while stray locks of hair spilled over her eyes.

"Why, Dr. Carter, I didn't know you'd heard of me. Though your voice sounds familiar." He frowned slightly then shrugged it away. A wave of his hand had one of the men behind him approaching her with some sort of device and her eyes widened when he placed it on the outside of her left arm. She cried out as she felt it hum and pierce her skin. He raised the device away and the thin plastic sheath of her transponder fell to the ground. A second man slapped a bandage over her arm. "Take her to the car." He waved and the large Jaffa handed her off to the two men who grabbed her arms while a woman pointed a zat'nik'tel at her. Sam frowned slightly when she saw her. The woman was staring at her with wide eyes. "Stun her if she resists."

"What about the other one?" asked the motorcycle riding Jaffa.

"We don't need the Colonel. Kill him." Tergali turned around and signalled for everyone to follow him.

"Cameron!" she cried as she struggled against the men holding her while they dragged her bare feet over the hard scrabbled gouges the careening car had left in the ground. She had already lost sight of the car behind a screen of trees and bushes before she heard the shots. "NO! CAMERON!" She ripped an arm free from one man and punched the other in the face, then swung her elbow back to catch the first man in the gut. She cried out in pain when she felt the fire blossoming in her back where the zat hit her. She swayed slightly, once more in the grip of the man now clutching his bleeding, broken nose before she keeled over sideways into the dirt.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Chapter 6**

Skies above the Ancient outpost, Antarctica, June 2004

He banked over to the right again and growled at how the 302 kept trying to shimmy to the leftt. The airframe must have been damaged by that hit as well. He turned his head to get a look at the immediate area around Prometheus and Sam's cargo ship. He could still see around a dozen F302s dogfighting with gliders and the pair of remaining Al'kesh, one of which exploded as he watched, littering the snowfield below with alien metal shards. He tipped the 302 over and powered back towards the fray, noticing on his radar that Nash was still tight at his four o'clock.

"Nash, my bird has just about had it, but we've gotta take out that Al'kesh." He turned a head over his shoulder to glance at Banks. "She's in a bad way, Adam. Can you try to lock it down a bit?" His co-pilot nodded with a flurry of his hands over his control board.

"Copy that, Blue Leader. I only have one missile though." came Nash's voice over the radio. Cam cursed at that, noting he had none.

"Blue Flight, this is Blue Leader, sound off ammunition counts. Guns, low. Missiles, tally zero." He waited while his squadron rattled off their own totals. Across the board they were almost out of railgun rounds and Nash's lone missile was the last one amongst all the 302s.

"Colonel, that Al'kesh is heading for the deck and towards Prometheus." Banks declared from behind him and Cam cursed again.

"Blue Two, join Blue Six and Seven. Get behind that Al'kesh and open up." he ordered as he peeled away to the left and headed straight for the cargo ship, Nash gave a confirmation and broke right then called out a quick 'Fox Three' as he launched his last radar-guided missile while closing in. Cam waited with bated breath as the missile closed and veered in towards the Al'kesh, striking its flank and causing it to buck up and veer off its attack run on the Tel'tak. It was only damaged though, not dead. He glanced down at the radar screen as the Goa'uld assault craft sped away before swinging back around. "Banks, will we fall out of the sky if I kick in the afterburners?"

"No, sir, but she's gonna fly like a pig." he replied. Cam turned and locked his gaze with the younger man.

"Are you with me, Lieutenant?" he asked in a low voice. Banks nodded.

"Protect SG-1 at all costs, sir." he intoned and Cam turned forward again, pushing his thrusters to maximum and then kicking in the afterburners to chew up the distance between them and the Tel'tak. The Al'kesh, burning and belching acrid smoke, was already being harried by railgun fire from a couple of F302s before Nash and his pair of wingmen joined up, but it wasn't going to be enough before the alien ship got in another attack. Cam wrestled with the flight stick as it wrenched and twisted in his grasp from the feedback. He could feel the ship wanting to tear itself apart trying to fly to the left as he forced her straight. "Contact!" Banks cried out. "Bandit at our six!" Cam snarled and began flying erratically, which just involved giving the ship a little more free reign to do what it wanted to do already, while still trying to keep it under control. He twisted his head, seeing the glider weaving from side to side behind him while staff cannon blasts shot past his canopy. He looked off to the right and saw the Al'kesh closing in. He grunted and pulled the stick over, twisting the F302 in a corkscrew to get in between the Al'kesh and Sam's cargo ship. He cut off the afterburners and the fighter nearly bucked under him with a shudder. He then flipped onto his side, cut the engines and pitched the ship to force a stall. He kicked in his RCS thrusters and the 302 spun over with a back-flip which allowed him to sweep his railguns across the nose of the incoming Al'kesh, driving round after round through its hull.

"Fox Four." he growled. The assault bomber pitched down which took Sam's Tel'tak out of the firing arc of its ventral staff cannons. His spin carried on and brought the glider trailing him into his firing arc and he pulled the trigger. "Fox Four." he called again only for the ammo indicator to show zero rounds. He snarled, but pulled the ship all the way around and kicked his engines to full power again. He turned his head and watched the Al'kesh fly past the cargo ship and then explode as the other 302s finished it off. He let out a little relieved breath only to curse as staff cannon fire rained past his cockpit again. He pulled the stick back and to the right, trying to evade the glider behind him.

"Blue Leader, take evasive action!" He could hear the note of desperation in Alonso's voice and he grunted while twisting the stick in his hand.

"I can't shake him. Reroute power to the-" He felt the ship being shunted forward while his flight stick nearly jolted out of his grasp. Sparks and little shards of burning plastic and metal flew past his head to land on his control board. Indicator lights began flashing yellows and reds all over the place and angry warning tones poured forth from the equipment. He turned his head from side to side, trying to get a look behind him. "Banks, you okay? Banks!" He pulled the yoke back and forth but only heard the shriek of metal tearing itself apart. "Awww, I'm losing it. Hang on back there. Eject, eject!" He reached up to either side of his head and yanked hard on the two levers next to the rest. He grimaced when the expected bursts of exploding bolts failed to materialise. "Dammit, ejection failed. Mayday! Mayday! We are going in. Repeat. We are going in." He took up the bucking yoke in his hands once more and tried to bring it under some control, pulling back hard in an attempt to level the dying fighter before he crashed into the snow at three hundred miles an hour. Keening groans of metal and the burning smell of overloaded wiring were the last thing he could remember before his vision filled with white.

* * *

Camelot, September 2010

"I know you're thinking the same thing I'm thinking, Jackson. And I know you've been thinking it ever since Merlin started spouting off on Muranis." Cam muttered from his bench by a side table where he sat with a massive tome lying over his legs as he leaned back with his heels propped up on another chair. Daniel frowned at him from where he stood around the main table with several books, and not a few scrolls, open and spread out over the top of it.

"Yeah, I am, and it's crazy, Mitchell." replied the archaeologist in exasperation. Cam shrugged his shoulders.

"When has crazy ever stopped us?" he asked seriously. "Hell, alternaSG-1 crossed realities in the hopes of stealing a ZPM. Tell me that's not crazy."

"It didn't work though, did it?" Daniel pointed out. Cam shook his head and turned the page of the book he was looking over.

"It kinda did, Jackson." he countered. He glanced up to see the linguist frowning at him. "It worked because they never once stopped being SG-1. Remember, they warned us, and if security footage is anything to go by, they warned each and every team that came through at some point or another." Daniel closed his eyes and sighed.

"Can you really say that wasn't something personal?" he asked gently. Cam glared at him.

"Jackson, remember the year Sam was in Atlantis?" he probed, his voice slightly sharp. Daniel looked away. "Sam is the beating heart of SG-1, Jackson. We did good, we made out okay without her, but can you honestly say there wasn't something missing?" Daniel sat down heavily.

"No." he replied with a shake of his head.

"We can do crazy, Jackson, if crazy is called for." Cameron concluded. Daniel scrubbed at his head and sighed. "So what have you found?" Daniel drew his lips tight and slapped one of the books with the back of his hand.

"You have to understand something, Cam." he began. "We call them legends because for the most part they're not real. There may be a tiny grain of truth somewhere in there, but essentially, we're dealing with fiction." He chortled and pushed his glasses up onto his forehead to squeeze his eyes shut under his fingers. "Just knowing Merlin _isn't_ a fictional character would send every single Arthurian scholar on Earth into paroxysms." Cam frowned slightly. "I know, I know, I've spent the last fourteen years essentially proving every myth and legend is real, but I was never supposed to be the protagonist of one before! I don't _want_ it to be real!" he cried. He leaned on his elbows over the table and cupped his hands over his mouth and looked at Cameron desperately. "There aren't many stories. But there are... _details_ that just stand out. I mean... Bors..." he lifted a book and pushed it over towards Cam who didn't make a move to stand. "A foreign prince, whose main distinguishing feature is a large scar on his forehead." He scrubbed at his hair. "It's vague, but the damn thing _fits_! Sure, most of what they write about him is fiction, but the little details just cry out."

"It's us, isn't it?" Cam asked softly. Daniel looked ready to tear his hair out, but clenched his jaw and leaned back in the chair.

"It's us." he whispered. "I'm sure of it."

"So am I." Vala declared as she walked into the Library with Sam and Teal'c in tow. She moved behind Daniel and leaned over him with her arms around his neck. Sam sat by Cam with a small frown on her face and leaned back against him. "Samantha doesn't like the idea, but she agrees too." Sam held her hand up to cover her eyes then tilted her head back when Cam kissed her hair as it nestled in the hollow of his shoulder.

"I agree also, Daniel Jackson. As far-fetched as it sounds, I believe we are indeed these historical figures." Teal'c added from where he stood with his hands clasped behind his back. "We have spent the last several hours visiting the villages and every one recounts a similar story of a band of warriors who visit Merlin in search of a Key."

"Fine." Daniel said softly and smirked ruefully when Vala kissed his cheek. "I'll work over some of these references and try to come up with _something_ that might convince the Generals."

"They're going to like this even less than we do." Sam pointed out. Valencia stuck her head into the room and gave them all a smile which faltered slightly as she took in the mood of the room.

"Meurik sent me to gather you for evening meal. Though if you are indisposed..." she trailed off only for Cam to wave his hand dismissively.

"We're always happy to dine with Meurik. And honestly, I think we all need a break right now." He looked pointedly at Daniel who huffed, but nodded. Vala backed up and pulled him up by an arm. Sam moved off Cam and similarly helped him stand after taking the large book off his legs. As they all began to leave Cam turned to Daniel with a curious glance. "Jackson, does the name 'Prinpare Domunis' mean anything to you?" Daniel's eyes narrowed and flicked to the side as he thought. Vala simply took over leading him forward.

"Dominion or Domain of the Forefathers... Ancestors? First Fathers sounds awkward." he looked at Cam and Sam. "Is this from Ilemus' Archive?"

"Yes, we've had a few dreams since we came back from Muranis." Sam supplied. "That's the name of Kariala's home planet."

"I'll try to find something." Daniel replied, making a motion to turn around. Vala just tugged him forward.

"After you eat, Daniel." she warned him and Cam smiled.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 3,741 days relative

Sam crouched down with her back against the wooden barricade and shook her head incredulously for the sixth time in the last twenty minutes. She looked over at Cam as he hunkered down at the end of the low wall, looking past the edge into the deeper woods beyond. She held the P90 between her knees and touched her forehead to the stock wondering how exactly it had come to this.

"What am I doing here?" she whispered. She heard Cam turning towards her and shuffling over to prop himself against the wall beside her.

"You know why we're here." he replied gruffly and she frowned. Was he was implying this was her fault? She ground her teeth together and her fingers tightened around the grip of the sub-machine gun in her hands. She ducked as she felt the wood behind her head splintering and shattering under a hail of 5.7mm fire. She spun on her heel and put her head down, trying to pinpoint the source from the sounds.

"Well, this is crazy!" she said at last before setting herself up on one knee to fire over the barricade into the trees in the distance. "If I had known it would go this far I never would have agreed to it." Cam frowned at her and the disappointment she could see in his eyes caused her anger to flare up. "Oh, please... The three of you just don't know when to stop. Or how far is too damn far!"

"Sam, you know-" he began, but stopped when she glared at him.

"I don't care, Cam. _This_ is all just a game, a meaningless play, and none of you seem to be able to understand that!" She stood and swept her P90 across the line of trees in the distance and turned to run off further away, firing her gun as she went. "And I've had enough."

"Sam, wait!" he called, but she wasn't listening, instead, she tore through the trees and bushes as fast as her legs would carry her. She stopped by a stream which cut through the small slope and ran off to join a larger creek in the distance. She leaned heavily against a tree, taking in several deep breaths. She shouldn't have said that. She scrubbed at her forehead with a hand and closed her eyes. She let her cheek fall against the tree and marvelled again at how much Cam had improved the field projectors' fine control. It felt like a tree now. She crouched down and pawed a hand through the dirt at her feet. He still had trouble with very fine things, but that was to be expected, and of course he was trying to figure out how to integrate chemical synthesizers to add in olfactory simulations. She gritted her teeth again. Too. Far. And yet, her heart still swelled up with pride whenever she looked at any of it, knowing this was all the work of her beloved. She shouldn't have said what she said. This was her idea after all. It was just that they had all gotten so _into_ it.

She closed her eyes and held her hand up to her forehead after shaking off most of the dirt. The worst of it was that she was enjoying it. She liked running around in these recreated woods and shooting a P90 loaded with simulated bullets. She even liked how Vala used it as an excuse to go all hammy and dramatic on them, and truth be told she felt like doing the same as well, just to unwind from her work. And she knew that was why she was so upset really, she felt guilty about taking the time away from her work. Even though she knew Cam was doing this for her own good.

She sighed and stood up, walking slowly down the slope. She turned to look up from where she had come, wondering if Cam would follow her, when she turned back she found herself looking at Vala raising a P90 in her direction as she came around a screen of high brush. She raised her own gun even though she knew it was too late, but instead of the expected crack of gunfire she heard only clicks and Vala's short curse. Sam smirked and raised her gun all the way and pulled the trigger, only to look down in dismay when she found it too was out of ammo. She patted at her pockets in desperation and Vala laughed.

"You see, Samantha," she said as she slipped the empty plastic magazine from the top of her gun and let it fall into the shallow stream, "that's the difference between you and I." She reached behind her and produced a new full clip from somewhere and locked it into place with a slap. "I took this seriously, right from the start." Sam grimaced as the raven-haired woman raised the gun to point it straight at her heart. "That's why I'll always-" she stopped at the cry from her left and Sam turned to see Cam running down the slope into the little hollow the women were occupying.

"Sam!" he cried as he threw his P90 into the air and leapt over the stream in front of her just as Vala's P90 opened up, slamming several shots into his chest and stomach as he landed into the loamy soil to lie prone and limp. Sam caught the P90 and pressed the trigger down viciously after taking aim right at Vala's chest. She saw several hits spraying blood from the woman as she stumbled and dropped back into the water behind her. Sam threw the gun away and ran towards Cameron.

"No! Cam!" she cried as she grabbed at his shoulder and turned him over, getting an arm under him and lifting him to her chest. "Oh, Cam. Holy Hannah, no!" She stared down at the gaping wounds on his chest and the blood flowing from them and cried out in despair as he coughed and gasped in pain. She turned her head to look to the top of the slope. "MEDIC!" she called out desperately.

"Is that you, Sam?" he asked in a voice straining against the pain. She reached a hand up to cup his cheek and turned his face to hers.

"Yes, Cam, I'm here, just hold on, hold on!" she ordered while her brows tightened and she looked down over the front of his BDUs, now awash in blood. She shook her head slightly.

"I'm tired, Sam." he said weakly while his eyes worked to focus on her. She ran her hand over the wounds on his chest and stomach as she began to rock him gently in her arms.

"Everything's going to be fine, I promise." she said in a broken voice, grimacing and clenching her jaw as a tear rolled down her cheek. "I'm sorry I said those things, okay? I wasn't thinking straight." Cam shook his head weakly, or rather, allowed gravity to have its way then fought against it for a moment.

"You were right," he smiled slightly as he looked up, "we do go too far sometimes, you can always tell. So smart." he admitted with a cough and a gasp of pain as his breath hitched and his muscles tensed. She shook her head over and over before cupping his cheek with a hand and leaning down to kiss him gently, pressing her lips to his again and again before pulling back.

"No, Cam, I'm too smart for my own good, always have been, and it makes me forget what's important sometimes." she whispered as she blinked rapidly when his eyes finally managed to focus on hers. Cam chuckled wryly and she frowned.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked in consternation, while still caressing his cheek lightly.

"Guess I got to be the hero one last time." he explained with a faint smile. She bit her lip and choked down on a sob which started in the pit of her stomach. She took a deep shuddering breath before smiling down at him gently.

"Yeah, I guess you did." she conceded with a slight nod while her fingers ran over the hair around his ear.

"I've gotta... I've gotta sleep." His head lolled slightly in her grasp and she shook her head.

"No, no, Cam... stay with me!" she pleaded, pulling his head up with her hand and running her thumb over his cheek.

"So tired." he breathed as his eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay open.

"No, Cam!" she begged, shaking him slightly.

"So tired... good-bye, my love..." he whispered in a voice lighter than she'd ever heard from him.

"No... Cameron!" she cried as he raised a hand with all his remaining strength and caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers. She choked back a small cry when it dropped limply against his chest. She screwed her eyes shut while rocking back and forth and pressing his head to her chest. The tears still escaped from between her shuttered eyelids and rolled down her cheeks and she took in a deep quaking breath before turning her face to the heavens and crying out with all her pain and despair. "NOOOO!" She looked back down into his face, he seemed so peaceful, as if he were just sleeping. She kissed his lips again before burying her face against his.

"What do you think, Muscles?" Vala asked as Teal'c helped her stand and she shook out her hair and her top so that the 'water' and 'blood' disappeared into nothingness. The Jaffa looked from her with a raised eyebrow to the two Air Force officers huddled in the dirt, the one rocking gently as she cradled the other.

"I would give Colonel Mitchell an 8.5." he intoned with a slight nod. Vala looked to him then glanced back at the other two.

"Hrm, really? I was thinking more like 7.5 myself, 8 at the most." she replied with a finger raised to tap at her cheek. Teal'c looked at her from the corner of his eye. "How about Samantha?" He turned back to regard his blond friend as she stared at the blood coating her hands.

"She is no Simon Pegg, however, I believe Colonel Carter deserves a 9, Vala Mal Doran." he declared as if daring her to disagree with his assessment. Vala pushed her lips out and nodded deeply with a hand on her hip.

"Oh, I couldn't agree more, my friend."

* * *

Rampart Range Road near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Tergali? Cameron cursed his luck as he stretched out his arm to reach for the grip of the CZ 85 by the rear view mirror. He got the tip of a finger on it when he heard the man tell the motorcycle rider to kill him. He redoubled his efforts to grab at the gun while he watched the hard booted feet making their way around the front of his destroyed Mustang. He heard Sam calling his name just as he tugged the grip close enough to snake a finger around it and pull it closer still. They were taking Sam away from him and he'd made her a promise! He pulled the gun to him just as he heard the motorcycle rider stop by his door and pull the slide on his machine pistol. He pointed at the door and opened fire, seeing satisfying twitches from the feet out his window while Sam's voice in the distance cried out his name, he choked at the sound, but there was nothing he could do about it right now.

The large man slumped down onto the ground and Cam dropped the gun to open the pocket dimension and pull out his swiss army knife. He began to cut at the seat belt and grunted loudly when he sliced through the waist strap and fell painfully onto his neck and shoulders. He twisted around, slipped the knife into his trouser pocket after closing the blade, retrieved his gun and crawled for Sam's door only to stop when he spotted a metallic shimmer amidst the broken glass, Sam's rings. He snatched them up and climbed out of the car, slipping the chain around his neck. He pulled the handgun up and quickly moved around the car to stand over the rider, a Jaffa, he could see now, very dead. He heard the sound of the SUV starting up and driving off and cursed until a plan formed up in his head. He reloaded the gun, slipped it into the strip of light and moved back to the Jaffa. He searched the alien's pockets finding keys to the motorcycle. He snatched and pocketed them then awkwardly lifted the Jaffa.

"Sorry, buddy, but I need your jacket." He managed to strip it off and rolled the Jaffa over to pick the jacket up off the ground. He crouched down to look in the car and let his eyes scan around, but there was no sign of his other CZ 85. He frowned and threw his head up to look behind at the trail of destruction left by the Mustang. He grunted and reached over to grab the Jaffa's black cap, he'd need that too, and put it on gingerly over the cut above his right eye. He shrugged on the slightly too long coat then reached into the strip of light and pulled out his phone and the headset he had for it, having no time left to look for the radio. He connected them together, slipped the phone into the inside pocket of his dress blues, wrapped the headset around his ear and pressed the button on it. "Call 'The Base'." He croaked as loudly as his aching ribs allowed. He heard the ringing of the phone.

"SGC." came a nondescript voice and Cam identified himself as he walked back towards the road.

"This is Colonel Cameron Mitchell, access code seven three one alpha slash five eight six lambda. Acknowledge secure communications." He heard several tones and clicks and audible thumps before the voice returned.

"Line is secure, Colonel." Cam blinked when he spotted something silver flashing in the moonlight and dashed over to find his second gun, slipping it into the strip as well after checking the magazine.

"I'm declaring a Code Red Omega emergency. Lucian Alliance personnel have kidnapped Dr. Samantha Carter." The voice sounded an acknowledgement as he found the motorcycle by the road and climbed onto it, slipping the key into the ignition and turning over the engine. "Can you read my transponder location?" A confirmation returned and he revved the engine as he kicked the bike off its stand. "Mark it and secure the wreck of my Mustang, there is one dead Jaffa in the vicinity. Confirm."

"Affirmative, Colonel, position locked." returned the voice and Cam put the bike into gear and sped off.

"In pursuit of gunmetal grey SUV, Colorado plates, four something something juliet whiskey something. Heading southeast along Rampart Range Road." He heard another confirmation before he gave the big order. "Wake the General." He hung up with a press of the headset in his ear and flicked a glance over a switchback to spot the SUV down below. He slowed down and pressed the button again. "Call 'Jackson'." He was mightily relieved when he heard Daniel pick up, laughing.

"Cam, I wouldn't have thought you'd need advice about what to do when you take a lady home." He groaned as he heard Vala demanding the phone.

"Cameron, put Samantha on, I'll make sure to give her some good recommendations for wholesome activities you can both take part in." Cam gritted his teeth, but managed to stop himself from snapping at his friends.

"Vala, Sam's been snatched by the Lucian Alliance. They forced me off the road and took her. I need you and Daniel to make sure you aren't in danger and contact the SGC. See if Teal'c is back." he ordered over the sound of the Fireblade's engine.

"That's not funny, Cameron." came Vala's distressed voice.

"No, it isn't, Vala. I'm after the bastards and I'm going to need backup when they stop. Call the SGC." He hung up and gunned the engine again, feeling the bike kick up underneath him and wrestling the wheelie back down as he sped down the road. He lost sight of the SUV on several occasions, but he knew as long as he could see it when he got off the mountain he'd be okay. When he caught up and knew he wasn't going to lose it again, he eased off and tried to keep a good distance. He followed it onto the expressway heading east only to get off again onto a county road soon afterwards. He was sure they were close when he saw it turning right onto a road he knew wasn't on most maps. He heard his phone ringing in his ear and pressed the headset quickly. "Mitchell." he called into it while keeping his distance from the SUV.

"Colonel, this is Landry. What's your situation?" He grimaced while slowing down slightly.

"Subjects in sight heading north on unmarked road off South 26th. Appear to be approaching fenced in area, looks like an old airfield." He pulled back further to get out of sight of the SUV then pulled off the road and got off the bike. He pulled a CZ 85 from thin air and hurried through the tall trees on the side of the dirt road until he spotted a path cutting through them that ran parallel with a fence. He crouched down just inside the treeline and looked on to a long runway in a sea of dying grass. "Confirmed, airfield off 26th. They've got Carter, sir."

"Acknowledged, Mitchell. Any idea of enemy disposition?" Cam replied in the negative. "I'm dispatching Teal'c along with SG-17 and 12 to your location right now. Will dispatch the rest of SG-1, 2 and 3 when they arrive here. Hold tight, son."

"Yes, sir." he acknowledged before something came to mind. "General?"

"What is it, Mitchell?" asked Landry.

"Please tell Teal'c to bring all mine and Sam's toys with him, sir." He got up and took a walk around the perimeter, trying to find sentries or other signs of defenses.

"Will do, son, Landry out." Cam hung up and let his eyes wander over the tall grass on the other side of the fence, he watched for signs of activity in any of the scattered hangers and buildings in the distance, but saw nothing. Then his eyes widened in a sudden thought. He quickly tapped his headset again. "Call 'Vala'." the phone barely rang.

"Cameron! Any news?" cried the smuggler immediately.

"No, Vala, I just called to... well... you know what Sam was wearing tonight and... what she wasn't wearing." he said in a low voice as if not wanting to be overheard in the darkness.

"What? Oh. Oh! Right! I got you! Don't worry, I'm on the case!" he smiled slightly despite himself.

"Thanks, Vala, talk to you soon." He was sure Sam would know he would put lots and lots of guns into the pocket. He just wondered whether she'd know to look for undergarments. He frowned as he looked at the friendship bracelets wrapped around his wrist until they morphed into the dark metal clasp once more. He could communicate with Sam in the dreams. Why not at other times. He blinked when the clasp told him it was precisely their sleeping state which allowed them to share thoughts. The clasp was programmed and calibrated to sense and translate the REM state brainwave patterns, so they effectively shared the same dreamspace when connected to the Archive records due to the quantum entanglement between the two clasps. He sighed dejectedly, then frowned when the clasp kept on explaining what that meant. That the clasps were essentially the same object in two pieces, constantly in contact with one another, sensing what the other sensed though only attuned to the wearer. His eyes widened. He looked down at the band and concentrated, asking what sort of things it could transmit to the other half. The clasp would have shrugged if it could, informing him only that what one part of the clasp sensed, the other sensed.

He scrubbed at his forehead with his hand and thought hard after wincing at the pain along the cut. His eyes widened, some things were universal, pain, touch, heat, vibration. He needed to communicate with Sam, the other half of the clasp wasn't attuned to his waking thoughts so could not translate them for her, but other things were universal. He remembered on Muranis when Sam had been drawn towards the crystal, he'd felt a humming along his wrist from the clasp. He lifted it and tapped at it. His eyes widened when he realised the clasp had actually transmitted that to the other half. He concentrated on his wild idea and the clasp was happy enough to comply, producing a small lump of itself which he pulled off and slipped into his ear. He twitched and cringed as he felt the metal sliding in and coating his ear canal.

"Gah, that feels kinda weird." He told the clasp to produce the same thing at the other end, then wracked his memory and chuckled manically before he began tapping away at his wrist like a madman.

* * *

Abandoned airfield near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Sam groaned and fluttered her eyes open with the jostling she was receiving. She looked around to see she was slumped on the back seat of an SUV with her hands tied in front of her. Mistake number three. She felt her hair against her cheek and bare shoulders and realised it was loose, they must have taken her Chinese hair pins. Smarter than they looked then. She felt along her left wrist with her fingers and was happy to find the friendship bracelets snugly closed around her skin. The cuts and scratches along her back and shoulders stung like Hell, which probably meant they'd received some treatment.

"Ah, Dr. Carter. I see you've rejoined us." Tergali said from the seat ahead of her as he looked over the back of it. "Sorry to say, Colonel Mitchell is dead." He smiled when he saw her brows tighten, but she blinked in surprise when the clasp told her Cam was alive. She asked how it knew and it said it just did. She blinked when it mentioned quantum entanglement. Holy Hannah. Her surprise was making Tergali frown though.

"He's not dead." she said softly and he laughed.

"Oh, but he is." He turned towards the man beside him. "Have Ger'to visit Dr. Carter in her cell when he arrives and tell her exactly how he killed the Colonel." The other man nodded and Tergali turned to grin at Sam. She frowned, wondering why the man was so sure. The clasp simply said Cam was alive and she blinked again when she started feeling some steadily paced thrumming against her wrist which felt like a pulse. Her eyes began to sting and well up and Tergali laughed again so she frowned and screwed her eyes shut. "You believe me now, then?"

"No, he's not dead." she reiterated far more calmly than Tergali seemed prepared for. He snorted and turned away when the car stopped. Doors opened all around the SUV and she was roughly grabbed by the arms and pulled out to stand between two men carrying guns. She glared at them and shook her shoulders so they would let her stand up straight.

"Take her to her cell. I'll arrange for contact and orders." Tergali said as he bustled away and waved nonchalantly over his shoulder. She was pulled by one of the men into a large hangar and then further into some buildings attached to it. A set of stairs led underground into a concrete bunker below the hangar and she was guided through the tunnels and down more stairs until she got to a very modern looking door with what looked like an electronic lock. She frowned at it and looked around at the wall fixtures nearby, not like the rest of the bunker. This section was new. One of the men swiped a card through the lock and the door opened slightly. He opened it all the way and motioned to his partner who shoved her inside. Before they closed the door she saw the woman from earlier still staring at her intently.

She looked around her cell, scanning the walls carefully. If there was a camera she couldn't see it. She really wished she had some sort of signals scanner. She cursed herself not only for _not_ following Cam's example of setting up an equipment store of her own, but also making him clear his armoury out. She sighed, determined to apologise to him when next she saw him. She expected he'd stock the pocket dimension as soon as he could anyway. She frowned when she felt a tap on her wrist and looked down at the friendship bracelets entangled around it. After several seconds she felt several more taps and presses and she blinked. Morse code? God, she loved that man! She frowned as she concentrated on the message. Ear bud? She glanced down and noticed an end of one of the bracelets was fat and solid and she gaped. How had Cam done that? She turned around to face the corner of her cell and pulled the bud off and slipped it into her ear. She nearly flinched when it slid in and started oozing all the way to her tympanum. She'd been tricked! She was going to kill him!

"_-am? Can you hear me?_" She blinked in surprise. She gasped as she realised what was happening, the metal was vibrating in her ear canal in exactly the same way as it was vibrating in his. Oh, Cameron was _way_ smarter than he looked. "_If you don't think you can speak safely then one tap for yes and two for no._" She could really hear him. She nearly started crying and just slumped down into the bench at the back of the cell and tapped once on her wrist. "_Joseph and Mary, honey, I'm so glad. Are you okay?_" She blinked rapidly and tapped once. "_Alright, as soon as we get a lock on your transponder we'll get Apollo to beam you out._" She tapped twice. "_Anti-beaming field?_" Tap, tap. "_You think they're jamming works on the transponders too?_" Another double tap. There was a pause and in her mind's eye she could see him frowning down at his wrist. She chuckled and covered her lips with her still tied hands. "_No transponder?_" She tapped once and he cursed, swearing wrathful vengeance upon Tergali. She smiled ruefully at the anger in his voice, cutting her had been mistake number two after all. "_Okay, well, as soon as the guys get here I'm gonna start stuffing things into the pocket dimension, yours as well as mine, my CZ 85s and combat knife are already in there._" She sighed in relief until he whispered the next. "_And Vala's bringing you some underwear._" She flushed crimson.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Chapter 7**

Willard Intercontinental, Washington D.C., November 2000

Cameron caught sight of her as she walked into the lobby of the old hotel and he felt time stand still. This place was something else, veined marble and polished mahogany, shining brass and crystal cut glass, a golden light suffusing the entire space making it all glow. He felt as if he was walking through an old Technicolor movie. And the leading lady had just made her appearance. Joseph and Mary, did she look good. He'd never thought mess dress was particularly flattering, but Sam Carter made it work, although if he was forced to admit it he wouldn't mind seeing her in something a little more... fashionable. Something floor-length and shimmery. He shook his head to clear the images from his mind.

"Mm-mm-mmm. Look at what just made this evening a Hell of a lot more tolerable." growled Nash as he stood by Cameron. He held up a finger in front of his friend's face while still looking at Sam as she handed her overcoat to a concierge. He had to hold it up quite high as the man had several inches height on him.

"You'll keep a civil tongue in your mouth, Alonso. At least around me." Cam warned. "That is Major Samantha Carter and she's receiving the same medal as we are tonight." He looked up to see Nash blinking slightly. "And I think she's had to wait a while to get it, because they needed some way of deflecting attention from her unit and the op they're being awarded it for." Alonso narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Classified op?" he asked. "And we're camouflage?" Cam nodded slowly.

"Did you really think the Vice-President was here to pin medals to _our_ chests, man?" he prompted and Nash turned pensive.

"So you know her?" his friend finally asked with a glint in his eye. Cam gave him a little glare and just began walking forward.

"Hey Sam, you sight for sore eyes." he greeted her with a smile and she grinned broadly as she caught sight of him. She wasted no time in moving towards him and wrapping her arms around him in an embrace as soon he was close enough. "It's good to see you."

"Oh, Cameron, it's good to see you too. I've missed you." she murmured as he held her close and smiled in contentment.

"And congratulations on your promotion, it's about time." he offered, pulling back slightly so he could brush his fingers along the Major's shoulderboards and look into her eyes. "You look good." He smiled at her blush while she let her hands drift to his shoulders where they smoothed over the lines of his mess dress jacket.

"I could say the same for you. You can certainly fill out any style of dress uniform." It was her turn to smile at his sheepish grin. "As can your friend." she added, glancing over his shoulder. Cam turned and found Alonso smirking at him in a way that could prove life-threatening for the man later on.

"Don't say that, he already thinks far too highly of himself." he muttered much to Nash's amusement. "Sam, this is Major Alonso Nash, Alonso, Major Samantha Carter, Ph.D." He smiled as Sam and Alonso shook hands and made the usual noises of introduction. "Nash is my 2IC until next month, when I ship out to Prince Sultan AB and the 79th FS." Sam blinked and looked at him wide-eyed.

"You're going back to Saudi? It's been what... seven years?" she asked and he nodded. "Wait, isn't the 79th Lt. Colonel Ferguson's beat?" Cam chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, that's right, I'll be Bryce's 2IC out there." He smiled when she rubbed his arm softly.

"I'll bet you're looking forward to seeing him again." she burbled and he nodded again. She turned back to Nash. "And you're going to step into Cam's shoes at Kadena, Major Nash?"

"Please, call me Alonso. I'd like to think any friend of Cam's is a friend of mine." he said with an easy smile. "And yes, I'll be taking over the reigns of our flight in the 44th. It'll be nice to finally get some decent leadership for a change." Alonso laughed at Cameron's theatrical glare and Sam smiled as she bumped shoulders with him.

"I read about the operation you're being honoured for, Alonso." she said and he smiled at the use of his given name. "That was excellent work." She included Cameron in the praise with a look. He couldn't help but smile softly at her proud gaze.

"Thank you for saying that, I only wish we could say the same." Nash looked at Cam with an amused glint and he shook his head in return. "But we're sure it was something outstanding." Sam smiled wryly and made a twisting motion with her pinched fingers over her lips. Nash laughed.

"Unfortunately, even boring things, like my job analysing Deep Space Radar Telemetry, need to be kept secret sometimes." She shrugged and Cam chortled, which earned him a smack on the arm. Alonso was smiling as he watched them until he caught sight of something over Sam's shoulder. Sam looked over and Cam turned slightly to see what had caught their attention, seeing a statuesque African-American woman in a full length dark purple gown handing off her coat to the concierge. Cam groaned and shook his head, knowing what was coming. Sam glanced back to him in confusion.

"If you'll excuse me, Samantha, Cameron," began Nash as he straightened his white bow tie, "I do believe my future wife just arrived." Sam started laughing as Nash grinned and winked at them as he moved away.

"You do realise he has yet to convert a future wife into a current wife, right?" Cam muttered with an amused tilt of his head at Sam. She chuckled some more. He watched her for long moments and she looked at him curiously.

"What is it, Cam?" she asked softly as she placed her hand on his forearm. He looked down and reached over to place his hand over hers, she looked down as well and they both just watched his fingers brushing across the back of her hand on his arm.

"I don't know if I can go another three years without seeing you again, Sam." he murmured. "Emails and phone calls are all well and good, but..." he trailed off and sighed.

"It's no substitute for being there." she finished in an almost whisper and looked up at him. He nodded with a faint smile. "You need to learn to be patient, Cameron." He glared at her and she laughed.

* * *

Dakara, June 2007

"Jackson's having a whale of a time, General." Cam said jovially into the radio as he and Sam stood by the DHD with a wormhole to Earth open in the Stargate. "The man likes dust, whether it comes blowing off books or from digging in the dirt doesn't seem to matter to him." Sam gave him a little look and he just smiled back. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Vala on the other hand, is about ready to snap, I think."

"Do try to keep the fallout to a minimum, Colonel." came Landry's amused reply.

"Yes, sir." He tilted his head at Sam and she reached for her radio.

"It's been pretty quiet, sir." she added. "The Jaffa who still live on Dakara, though they've been very helpful, tend to stay away from the ruins themselves."

"A bit of a sore spot for them, I imagine." Landry offered and Cam watched Sam nodding sadly.

"Just so, sir." she supplied. "We've basically had the ruins to ourselves the last few days and now that Daniel's found something we're probably going to be heading back to Earth sometime in the next few hours."

"Understood, Colonels, we'll keep the light on for you. SGC out." came the General's sign off which they acknowledged just before the 'gate shut down. Sam walked over to the platform and propped herself against the stonework at the side and took off her green patrol cap. Cam walked over and stood in front of her with the heel of his hand resting on the stock of the P90 against his chest.

"Everything okay, Sam?" he asked gently as he reached to touch her arm with the tips of his fingers. She looked up and gave him a slight smile.

"Yeah, everything's fine, just... I had a weird dream last night." she replied, looking slightly embarrassed. He canted his head to the side in concern. "It was nothing, a very vivid dream is all." she tried to smile at him reassuringly.

"Well, we've been camping out in a ghost town for the last several days," He raised his head to look around the wide space in front of the ruined temple in which the Stargate stood before returning his gaze to Sam, "this place can do that to you." She shook her head as she reached across and took his fingers in hers. He liked the contact, it seemed simple.

"It's not like that, I..." She shrugged and shook her head with a smile. "I can't explain it. It didn't feel like a dream." She looked up with a slight frown, still holding his fingers. Cam moved a bit closer and she shifted slightly, not to move away, but to get more comfortable in their new positions. She still held his fingers over the back of her hand, pressing down on them with her thumb. "It's nothing." she breathed as she finally let his fingers go and looked down to the ground. He tilted his head forward to try and look at her downcast eyes then moved to her side and hitched up on the stones the Stargate rose up from. She closed her eyes and sighed as she let her head lean over and rest against his shoulder.

"Sam, it must have been really bad if-" He was stopped by her hand rising and the backs of her fingers pressing against his lips for just a moment. "Sam..."

"It wasn't bad, Cameron." she said reassuringly. "It was like I had a lifetime of memories and what I was seeing made perfect sense to me until I woke up." She sighed and lifted her head up once more. She reached up to pull her short braid from under her collar and to tease out the locks of her hair which were brushing over her cheek. She replaced her cap on her head and looked up into his eyes with a slight smile. "Cam, we've been good friends, close friends, for a very long time." she began hesitantly and he nodded. "Have you ever..." She looked down and gulped slowly. "When you think of me..." she sighed and turned her head away. He frowned and reached across to flick at her chin with a finger. She looked back at him for just a moment before looking down again. "It's nothing. I'm just glad you're my friend, Cam. You have no idea how important you've been to me over the years." He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed.

"Don't you worry, Sam, I'll still be your best friend even when you're a doddering old genius writing incomprehensible universal insights all over whiteboards for others to ooh and aah at." he said softly and felt her chuckling slightly through their touching shoulders. "And I'll still be visiting you to bring you blue jello and collect you for movie nights." He felt her take in a long slow breath and glance over at him. He was alarmed at the intensity he saw there, how her blue eyes were shimmering with a fierce glow.

"Cameron, I..." He could see the struggle playing across the muscles in her neck and jaw as she gritted her teeth. After a few moments her shoulders sagged slightly and she turned away as the fire slipped away from her gaze. "Don't make promises you can't keep." she whispered. He frowned at her.

"Sam, I never just make you promises." he growled and she looked over in alarm. He turned away. "For you, I make guarantees." They were quiet for several moments until he pushed off from the stone platform and turned to face her after taking a step. "Let's go." He gave her a lopsided smile as he held his hand out to her. "Vala's eruption can't be far off now." She watched him with a troubled look in her eyes before slowly raising her hand to take his. He pulled her up and turned to lead the way back to Daniel's excavation site. Sam fell into step alongside him, looking down along their path until they were well into the twisty little maze of streets off the temple complex.

"I'm sorry I said that, Cam. I know how much you care about me." she said just above a whisper, surprising him. He sighed.

"You really don't, Sam." he breathed. "I don't even know that." He looked up at a keening wail from somewhere behind them and cursed when his eyes picked out the arrow-shaped forms of Ori fighters.

"Ori? Why?" Sam began incredulously as she started running through the narrow streets.

"No time for that right now, Sam." Cam quickly followed her when he saw the ships dropping off portable ring platforms in a courtyard not far away. He grabbed for his radio as Sam took cover behind the vertical support of an archway. He darted to crouch behind the low wall opposite the gap. "Hey, kids, guess what?" he called as Ori ships flew past them and explosions went off in the near distance with the added bonus of staff blasts fired by footsoldiers sizzling over his head. "We are under fire."

* * *

San Francisco, July 8th, 2009 (alternate timeline)

"Heliopolis."

"What was that, Jackson?" Cam asked the rather distracted archaeologist as they walked up the stairs on Pier 39 towards the arch of the Fog Harbour Fish House restaurant. Daniel turned to him slightly for a moment with a strange look and tightly drawn smile.

"Cameron, Daniel!" They both turned at the melodious voice which greeted them at the top of the stairs as Sam rushed over and gave Daniel a crushing hug. "Happy birthday!" she cried as Daniel chuckled and tried to unpin his arms to return the embrace. She let him go after he managed to thank her and hug her himself and she turned to melt against Cameron as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her tenderly. "I've just been inside checking our reservation, it's all ready." She smiled and took his hand and led both of them into the restaurant. They soon found themselves seated at a table by a window overlooking the Bay with a view of Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance to the west silhouetted by the last vestiges of the setting Sun. They already had a bottle of champagne waiting in a high hat and Cam busied himself pouring for them all. "So that's all of us with one birthday under our belts in this timeline." Sam said with a rueful smile as she looked down at her fingers twirling the stem of her flute.

"Here's to not having any more before fixing things." Cam toasted with his champagne glass raised, Daniel and Sam joined in. "And happy birthday, Daniel." Sam raised her glass to that with Cam while Daniel smiled. They all took a long sip before Sam slid closer to Cameron and leaned against him. He smiled at her before turning back to Daniel. "So what was that about Heliopolis, Jackson?" Sam perked up slightly with a look towards her friend across from them.

"Heliopolis? As in Egypt, or as in PB2-908?" she asked and Daniel smiled slightly. He was about to speak when a waiter arrived with bread baskets and menus which they took. Once the server had moved off the archaeologist began to speak while spreading some butter on a torn hunk of a bread roll.

"As in 908, Ernest's world." He glanced up with a small smile and Cam had to force himself not to recite details of that mission. He felt Sam patting his arm and glared at her amused smile. "I just woke up this morning and it was swimming there in my fore brain for some reason. I think I might have been dreaming about it." He frowned slightly and pushed his lips out pensively. "I just woke up, thought 'it's my birthday', and pop... Heliopolis." Cam laughed softly.

"You're weird, Jackson." he teased and the linguist glared at him.

"No, the weird thing is that I got a 'Mitchell vibe' as I thought of it too." Daniel said before taking a bite of the bread. Cam quirked an eyebrow.

"Cameron doesn't have anything to do with Heliopolis, Daniel. That was..." she trailed off and Cam jumped at the opening.

"October '97. Jackson's going through the DoD's Stargate archive and finds reels of film of them manually turning the 'gate's inner track, one of which shows a wormhole forming and Dr. Ernest Littlefield-" He stopped when Sam leaned over and kissed him. Daniel laughed.

"Thank you, sweetie. We were there." she said with a smile as she pulled back. He grinned and stole another kiss.

"Okay, Sam, you've just volunteered for the position of Mitchell's exposition-buster." Daniel declared with a point of his bread roll between them. Sam laughed and kissed Cameron again. "By far the most effective method yet devised, but only available to you."

"You do realise, Jackson, you've just made it a very attractive proposition for me to rattle off mission file facts at the drop of a hat." Cam pointed out with a slow smile. Daniel blanched and gulped while Sam laughed again, beginning to turn a decidedly dusky shade of rose.

* * *

Abandoned airfield near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Cam stood by the Fireblade at the side of the road after he'd turned it around and ridden back beyond a blind spur out of sight of the base. He spotted the black vans approaching and waved them down.

"Yeah, T-man, I see you." He waved the vans off the road into the small clearing he'd found and Teal'c stepped off the side of the van before it had even come to a complete stop. "It's good to see you, man."

"Indeed, Colonel Mitchell." Teal'c said as he hung up the headset he was wearing and Cam did the same. "I have brought your 'toys'." he added, motioning him to the back of the van. "And Samantha Carter's. You are still in contact with her?" Cam nodded.

"Yeah, she can hear what I hear essentially, if either of us feel it's interesting." he explained to Teal'c's faintly confused look. He opened the back of the van as the members of SG-17 spilled out around him and checked their guns. He began going for the racks of weaponry and stuffing assorted items in through the strip of light. "She doesn't feel she can speak though. I guess she's worried about surveillance in the cell. Does she have a frequency scanner in her gear?" he asked, moving over to where Teal'c had arranged a small footlocker full of equipment from Sam's lab. Teal'c picked one up and handed it to Cam.

"I believe this is the item she requires." he intoned and Cam nodded, putting it in, as well as her laptop and just about anything that looked useful. His phone buzzed against his chest and he touched his headset.

"Mitchell." he muttered softly.

"Cameron, we're almost there along with SG-2 and 3. Any news?" Cam smiled slightly at hearing the anxiety in Vala's voice. The two women had grown so close over the years. He chuckled now when he remembered how Sam had first referred to Vala as a backup singer.

"She's fine, Vala, locked up in a cell at the moment, but unhurt." He turned to Teal'c. "I think Sam just took the frequency scanner out. She tapped my wrist." Teal'c nodded though Vala sounded a confused mutter into the phone. "Sorry, Vala, long story. Tell you in a bit." He went back to the weapons and grumbled at the too-long sleeves of the jacket he was wearing. He shrugged it off and dropped it on the bench. Teal'c raised an eyebrow as he looked it over. "Tergali's Jaffa tried to kill me. Took his coat, hat and bike to trail after the son of a bitch incognito." Cam explained and Teal'c nodded.

"We're here, Cam." called Daniel over Vala's phone and he heard the phone hang up. He stepped out of the van and saw Vala bounding over to hug him tight. He smiled and hugged her back and smirked lightly when he felt her slip something into the pocket of his dress blues. "You look like Hell, man." Daniel said as he walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ribs are a bit sore. Head hurts." He lifted the Jaffa's cap off his head to reveal the ugly looking cut underneath. Daniel cringed and waved over a medic. "Did you bring me a set of BDUs?" Daniel's eyes widened slightly and Cam chuckled and shook his head. "No worries." The medic looked over the cut and began to clean it after retrieving some things from her kitbag. Cam winced in pain then clenched his jaw when she began stitching it closed as he sat on the back steps of the van. Colonels Dixon and Reynolds and Majors Tavarez and Pasternak of SG-17 and 12 approached him while he was being tended to.

"What's the lay of the land, Colonel?" asked Reynolds while Dixon crossed his arms across his burly chest.

"I did a circuit of the airfield's southern perimeter, I saw no sentries or anything which looked like a camera, but that doesn't mean there isn't some sort of automated security or surveillance." Cam replied. "The buildings are clustered at the southwest end of the compound, one large hangar and two smaller ones, several buildings attached to the large hangar as well. The control tower looked dark."

"Does Dr. Carter have any intel?" Dixon asked while the medic took up Cam's hands and began looking at several scrapes and abrasions along the palms.

"She might, but she still feels she may be under surveillance in her cell so she's not-" He stopped when he heard Sam's voice in his ear.

"_Signal and frequency sweep clear, Cam. There's nothing recording or transmitting from this cell. Mistake number four._" He laughed giddily for a moment and the medic glared at him warningly then motioned for him to take off his jacket and unbutton his shirt so she could check his ribs. He complied.

"So good to hear your voice, Sam." he murmured as Vala bounded to lean closer into his ear.

"I've given Cameron a pair of my blue thongs, Samantha." she whispered very lightly and Cam smirked wryly while Sam on the other end giggled manically.

"In a second, Vala." he muttered darkly while the former smuggler just grinned at him. "Sam, what can you tell me about their personnel?" She told him she'd seen less than a dozen men and women, but the part of the facility she was in was several storeys underground so she wasn't sure exactly how many people there were. He relayed her response to those present. She also indicated she was taken into a large hangar and underground from there and Cam nodded while passing that on too. Dixon and Reynolds waved over their seconds and began formulating plans. "Sam, we're coming to get you, okay? Be ready. There's just about anything you might need ready for you."

"_You need to hold off, Cameron._" Sam said quietly, probably knowing exactly what sort of reaction that request would get from her fiancé.

"No." he said simply.

"_You have to, Cam, I'm not kidding._" she said warningly.

"Neither am I, Sam. I'm coming to get you." he declared as he stood up, much to the annoyance of the medic who had just been wrapping a bandage around his ribs.

"_Not yet, Cameron. We need more intel and I'm in the perfect position to get it._" Her words made him frown heavily, but he listened. Everyone was glancing at him curiously. "_Remember when Riley mentioned that discussion topic between Masim and the Aschen that sounded... imminent?_" He drew his lips tight in a grimace.

"Yes, I remember. You think they were talking about your kidnapping?" he asked and motioned over for Daniel and relayed Sam's theory. He blinked and looked over at Captain Lewis who had heard it too. She glanced at her commander who just nodded to her and she and Daniel walked off towards one of the vans with uplink equipment to the SGC.

"_Yes, I do, Cameron._" Sam replied. "_They want me for a reason and we need to know what that reason is. I know what you're thinking, Cam._" He grumbled knowing that she probably _did_ know he was thinking he didn't particularly care what their reasons were right at that moment. "_You know I'm right, sweetie._" He covered his eyes with a hand and sighed.

"Alright, Sam, you win." he conceded. "I'll give you some time to play spy. Do you need anything from us?" The medic pulled his t-shirt back down after tying off the bandage and he began buttoning up his shirt again.

"_Just knowing you've got my back, love._" His brow tightened and his lips drew tight at her words.

* * *

Abandoned airfield near Colorado Springs, September 2010

She flipped Cam's combat knife idly in her hands as she paced along the wall of her cell with the door in it. She didn't feel as exposed anymore, though being Vala's they were a little tight for her. The ear buds were so simple it amazed her, and the clasps seemed to be able to discern what information they wanted to hear or they wanted the other person to hear and adjusted the intensity of the vibrations accordingly. So right now, Cam's tactical discussions with the SG teams were just a buzzing in the background while she tried to figure out how to get out of the cell. She took up her scanner again and studied it intensely, poking the spot on the wall with the largest energy readings with the point of the knife. This was probably the relay which powered the door and lock. She reached into the strip and grinned as she pulled out the silenced high speed drill she wanted and another quick grab pulled out the wide diameter diamond tipped circular bit. She felt along the wall for a moment before pressing down and starting the drill which ate through the thin metal sheet of the wall in seconds. She slipped the drill away and pulled out a flash light. Shining it in the hole, she saw several wires and data connector leads which led to the locking mechanism.

She took a wire tool and started bringing wires out with the hooked end to get a closer look. She checked over the connectors too and measured various readings with her scanner. She nodded slightly and stored the scanner away and pulled out some low resistance alligator clips. She stripped the sheath off two wires and bypassed a section of each with the clips, then sliced through the wires with the combat knife. She stripped the ends with the wire tool and crossed one wire with the other, then tied them back up again. She then severed a third wire and pulled the clips off the other two. Stripping the ends of the third she passed them across each other and heard the locks in the heavy metal door clunk. She pulled out one of Cam's CZ 85s and pushed the door out with the pistol at the ready only to blink in surprise at the woman from earlier, who now stood by the door with the front fascia of the card reader dangling from some cables and her fingers rooting through the wires in an attempt at bypassing several control circuits in the reader mechanism itself. The woman blinked in surprise at Sam in turn.

"Did you do that or did I?" she asked softly, glancing in confusion at the gun pointed at her.

"I did, you look like you still have a ways to go." Sam replied and flicked the end of her gun up. The woman stood up straight and put her hands up.

"Where did you get that?" she asked. "I searched you thoroughly in the SUV." Sam smirked at her, flicking the barrel to the side this time. The woman turned around slowly and put her hands on the far wall. Sam patted her down with one hand, finding two zats attached to the back of the woman's trousers under her jacket, she pulled them off and tossed them into the cell. There was some sort of radio as well and she clipped that to the low back of her dress

"I have hiding places no one will ever find." Sam offered.

"_Except me._" piped up Cam in her ear. She rolled her eyes. Further searching uncovered her hair pins. She took them back.

"I figured if I took them, claiming them for myself, I could give them back to you." she explained and Sam just nodded. "Not to mention they're sharp. They would have taken them from you anyway." Sam pulled on the woman's shoulder and let her turn around again. She looked long and hard into the woman's face.

"Reynard." she whispered softly and the woman nodded.

"_Reynard? Tanis Reynard? One of the Hebridan prisoners from the Seberus?_" Cam asked and Sam smiled slightly at his recall. She heard him talking excitedly with Teal'c in the background.

"I was hoping you might remember me." Tanis pointed towards the zats on the floor of Sam's former cell. "One of those was for you. Though it seems you don't need it." She whispered the last.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked as she took a step back and motioned towards the card reader. Reynard seemed to get the hint as she started reassembling it.

"It's a long story. I suppose you could say the Lucian Alliance took advantage of the Ori's capture of Hebridan." she murmured as she finished detaching several clips from bare wires and tossing the components attached to them into the empty cell. "I'd just been wanting to serve my time and go back home." She turned her head and smiled ruefully when Sam snorted. "I know what you're thinking. Let's just say a girl can change when all she has left is a log cabin on a hill on the women's island of a prison colony." She closed up the fascia with several clicks and a few hits from the heel of her hand. "Nothing except wide open grassland, a patch of dirt to grow extra food and time to think." She turned to face Sam. "You don't have to believe everything, Major Carter. Just that I'd rather take my chances with Earth again than the Lucian Alliance." Cam grunted in her ear.

"_They do seem to have that effect on people, don't they?_" Sam smirked at his words.

"It's just Doctor now, Reynard. I retired my commission, as a Colonel." she said. "Now tell me why you're the only one here and how much time do we have until more come."

"It's my shift on the door." she explained. "I don't expect anyone for another two hours. That's enough time for us to get off base undetected." Sam raised an eyebrow at her. "There aren't a lot of people here, only two dozen or so. Its the night shift and Tergali's back. Most of them are asleep."

"Why didn't you unlock the door with the key card?" she asked. Tanis slowly reached into her top pocket and pulled it out to show Sam.

"Every time the scanner is used it is logged and the door appears on a screen in the control room as unlocked, the card that did it is also logged, I was trying to bypass those feedback functions." she explained, Sam nodded.

"Well, since I have no intention of escaping just yet you can spend that couple of hours telling me everything about this base." Sam smirked at Reynard's look of surprise. "Oh, don't worry, I'm going to walk right out of this place. I might even take you with me. If you give me a good reason to." The other woman nodded in understanding. Sam motioned into the cell and Tanis stepped in, carefully taking a seat along the bench furthest from the zats.

"Well, you know about the personnel, the dorms are the next level up, one for men and a smaller one for the women..." she rattled off the features of the base and Sam could hear the muffled relay of Cameron jotting this all down for the SG teams. How the Lucian Alliance and Tergali were trying to keep a low profile by not having many people visible outside. Instead, the perimeter of the base was ringed with several layers of motion detectors and other such alarms connected to a control room at the base of the ATC tower and all the buildings were connected with underground tunnels and mini transit systems. These tunnels and the new sections of the bunker had been built through the use of some technology modules provided to them by allies of Tergali's head man, Masim. Sam expected it was the Aschen. She eventually stood up and kicked the zats over to Reynard.

"I need to find somewhere where I can gain access to the base computers." Sam stated clearly and Tanis stood up after retrieving the zats and reattaching them to the back of her belt.

"There's a storage room on the next level down with a computer terminal for stock control. It has access to the main servers." she offered and Sam nodded and slipped the gun in her cleavage for a moment. She paused and looked at Reynard.

"You searched me, did you take the rings I was wearing on a chain?" she asked and Tanis shook her head in confusion.

"_I have them, honey. Sorry, should have mentioned that._" She sighed in relief at Cam's words and proceeded to hitch up her dress slightly with some tucked folds at her waist which lifted the tail, ruined as it was, off the ground. She slipped one of the hair pins into the locks at the back of her head and looped it around to gather her hair up then slipped the other one in across from it for a quick hold. She then took up her CZ 85 in both hands once more and held it at the ready, but lowered and pointed away from Reynard, who took the hint and pulled a zat out and led the way.

The woman had been right about the night shift, they encountered nobody on their short journey down the stairs to the storage room. Once inside Sam motioned for Tanis to stand guard and walked to the computer. She pulled her laptop from the strip of light and some equipment which she used to patch in to the network where the stock control computer was, she opened up her laptop and connected wirelessly to the device and started navigating the menus through her available programs.

"Hey, where did that come from? You were _not_ hiding that thing under your dress!" Reynard said in a piercing whisper from the door. Sam just smirked while she started running some of her infiltration algorithms.

"Sorry, a magician never reveals her secrets." Sam joked and she heard Cam bark a laugh. When the device was well on its way to hacking through the internal firewalls she created a new command in her menus called 'HAVE RILEY PRESS THIS CAM', closed the laptop and slipped it back inside the strip. The command would run several programs which would connect the laptop to the network on the base through an external connection she'd programmed the infiltration device to open and maintain. She picked her gun off the table while she whispered to Cam over the ear bud. "Laptop, Cam."

"_Gotcha._" he replied and she smiled at his cry of indignation when he opened the computer. "_I coulda figured it out... maybe... perhaps..._"

"It will take a little while," she said as if she were speaking to Reynard at the door, "but we'll have full control of the defense perimeter eventually." The other woman was frowning at her and looking over her shoulder in confusion.

"Another magic trick?" she asked referring to the vanished laptop and Sam nodded with a grin only to be interrupted before she could say anything as the radio on the back of her dress squawked into life.

"Reynard, bring Dr. Carter to the control room." ordered Tergali as Tanis stared at Sam wide-eyed. She took the radio from behind her and tossed it to the other woman.

"Tell him you're on your way." Sam said as she made as if to hide her gun down the back of her dress, but instead slipped it into the strip of light while Tanis couldn't see. She did the same with her hair pins. Reynard looked at her nervously, but raised the radio to her lips as Sam readjusted her dress back to the way it had been.

"On my way, Tergali." she replied to the Lucian Alliance mercenary. Sam held her hands in front of her, crossed at the wrists.

"Do you have another pair of plastic wrist ties, Madam Gaoler?"


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Chapter 8**

Petersen AFB Medical Center, Colorado Springs, July 2004

"You crazy son of a bitch," she said softly as she looked down at him lying in the hospital bed surrounded by the infernal noise of the heart and respiration monitors, "I can't believe you did that, Cameron." She walked to the wall and pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat down in it, looking over at his still features as she had every few days for the last couple of weeks. She frowned as a wave of anger and guilt washed over her and she pushed at his ribs with a finger. "Don't think I don't know you're just faking it to avoid my wrath, Mitchell, if you weren't already lying there all broken I'd kick your ass myself, understand? And when you get out of here I _am_ going to kick your ass!" She glared at him for a long moment before closing her eyes and leaning back in the chair. She chewed on her lower lip as the anger drained from her, leaving only a deep fear which bubbled over with pangs of relief.

"I just don't understand... what were you _thinking_, Cam?" She sobbed. "What would I do if you had died, huh? Did you even think about that? You didn't, did you?" she growled. "When I flew on your wing you were the same way. Did you think I wouldn't notice the way you flew with me? Always covering me while I flew lead, protecting me." She raised a hand to cover her eyes and took in a slow breath. "Don't you get it, Cameron? How I feel when you do these things? And you walk around with _that damn smile_ and look at me with _those damn eyes_ and you just expect me not to get mad at the incredibly stupid risks you take. Well, I can't do that!" She grabbed his hand with hers. "Not with you. How can I _not_ feel my heart clenching in pain when I see your 302 streaking through the sky _on fire?_"

She shook her head as the memories of his F302 flying in between her Tel'tak and that last Al'kesh and forcing it to veer away, then getting shot down by the glider which had been shadowing him the whole time. How her heart had stopped beating in her chest for long seconds while she watched the damaged craft falling and ploughing into the snow below. And as if that wasn't enough, she later had to watch Jack looking up at her from that chair in the outpost, his eyes almost blank, his mind shutting down with the weight of the knowledge of the Ancients taking control of him. Her heart and soul felt like they were being crushed in a vice because she was losing them both. When she pushed Jack into the stasis chamber and watched it crystallise over him, locking him in time, she'd been left to wonder if Cam was frozen in a different way up on the surface with no way of knowing either way. She covered her mouth with her other hand and gazed down at him. She reached over and pushed lightly at his fringe, just feeling the softness of his hair against her fingers.

"Why don't you know, Cameron?" She paused, her voice breaking, her hand squeezing his. "How have you never seen it?" She lifted his hand up to her cheek. "Can't you tell?" A sob escaped from her lips. "Ever since the Academy I've been... since that first day... no one has made me feel the way-" She stopped and blinked back the tears as they welled up in her eyes only for them to roll down over his fingers as she held them against her cheek. She looked across his bed and out the window at the deep blue summer sky for several seconds then closed her eyes wondering why she was feeling what she was feeling right at that moment. Wondering why her heart felt like it wanted to just split right down the middle if she didn't let the words fall from her lips. Words she could never take back. It didn't matter that he was unconscious and couldn't hear them. If she let those words out, admitted them even to an empty room, to any space other than her own heart and her own mind, she would lose any control she still had over her feelings. Those words would own her and she could not... dared not... let them out.

The next day she was rushing down the corridor of the medical center after having received a call from Cam's doctor. She skidded to a stop in front of the door to his room, which stood open to show him lying back in the slightly raised bed. His eyes were open and he was looking off to his left, out the window at the wide summer sky, though his neck was almost immobilised by a brace. She stepped into the room hesitantly and even though he made no move to look at her she could tell he was aware of her presence as the ghost of a smile brushed along his lips.

"Hey Sam." he croaked in a raspy voice. "How are you?" He finally turned his blue eyes on her and her brows tightened. She walked towards him slowly and pulled the chair from the wall to sit by his bed.

"Ass. I'm fine. How are you?" She reached over and pushed his fringe away from his face slightly. He smiled at her weakly.

"Better for seeing you." he replied and she felt her cheeks heating up. "They say I've been here a couple of weeks already. It's fuzzy." She nodded slowly and he frowned very slightly. "I remember... being told about Adam." She tilted her head wondering how he'd remembered that, he'd been drifting in and out of a semi-comatose state for the past week. The reason the doctor had called her was because he was finally lucid and had asked after her almost immediately. He looked at her with a worried gaze. "How's the rest of your team?" Her brows tightened as she gripped the sheets on his bed between her fingers.

"Um, I suppose they're all fine, though Jack's in stasis and if we take him out he'll die." She held a hand up to her mouth and he frowned sadly. He drew his lips tight and slowly lifted his hand. Her eyes widened and she reached over to take it in hers and felt him squeezing her fingers weakly.

"Was going to try to caress your cheek." he grumbled and she had to smile at how adorable it was, his desire to comfort her while he lay there. He may have been all broken inside, but he was still the same old Cameron. She pulled his hand closer and held the palm in place across her cheek as she had done the day before. He smiled and her tears began to fall when she felt his thumb begin to move lightly across her skin. "He'll be fine, Sam. Just gotta get him to the Asgard, right?" She closed her eyes and nodded.

"I'm more worried about you, Cameron, I don't know if your doctor told you, but-" she stopped when he nodded slightly.

"He told me." he breathed and she couldn't help looking down and crying just a little harder. "I'm not going to give up, Sam." She glanced back up to his eyes and saw them shining in the summer light. Bluer than she'd seen in a long time as he turned his head very slightly and looked back out the window. "I'm going to walk. I'm going to run. I'm going to fly." He smiled faintly then turned back to her slowly. "I need you to be patient with me, Sam. I won't give up, so please, wait for me." She pulled his hand back from her cheek and held it in both of hers, squeezing it hard as she lowered her head down on top of their clasped hands.

"I will, Cam. I promise."

* * *

Galadia, above Camelot, September 2010

Sam turned over and wrapped an arm across Cam's waist as she snuggled up behind him in their bed. She smiled as she pressed her cheek against his back and felt his contented rumbling when he ran his hand along her arm and laid it atop hers over his chest, entwining their fingers together.

"~Dr. Carter, Colonel Mitchell, there is a call for you from Dr. Jackson on the planet's surface.~" Galadia intruded into the pleasant calm they'd just been sharing. Cam groaned and Sam began to chuckle.

"Don't answer it. The damn fool wouldn't go to sleep last night so he can deal with Vala's wrath his own self." Cam muttered into his pillow and Sam laughed out loud. She turned over and reached for the comm which was lying on the low platform which slid out of the wall behind their wide, retractable bunk. The Captain's Quarter's, they called it. The largest set of personal quarters on board, set just ahead and below of the the Observation Deck amidships, the quarters were a semicircular wedge with windows all along the arc, the semicircle was divided into three sections by interior walls which separated the space into a bedroom with bathing facilities, a large central sitting room and finally a kitchen and utility rooms. Sam waved her hand and the arc of windows on her side of the bed became semi-translucent, allowing a shaded view of Camelot hanging off to the left. She edged her legs off the bunk and sat up, slipping the comm in her ear. She giggled when Cam turned over and slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her back against his chest, she turned her head and kissed him gently, which seemed to placate him slightly, he propped himself up on an elbow and she leaned her head back against his raised side and smiled when he began to stroke her hair slowly. She finally managed to press the comm stud.

"Good morning, Daniel. Have you been to bed yet?" she asked while interlacing her fingers across her/Cam's pyjama top, under her breasts.

"Ah, morning, Sam. Did I wake you guys? Sorry, I guess we lost track of time down here." Sam blinked and glanced over at Cam.

"Is Vala with you?" Cam asked, knowing Daniel would hear him.

"Yes, we've been collating these various references since we came back from dinner with Meurik. Working on some sort of chronology." he replied. Sam raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Jackson, that was ten hours ago. Are you telling me Vala voluntarily pulled an all-nighter to help you collate." he asked incredulously.

"Quiet, Cameron!" Vala's indignant voice piped in over the comm. "I'll have you know I can collate with the best of them." Sam giggled.

"No offense meant, Vala, I just know how much you like your beauty sleep." Cam joked.

"Just keep digging, Cameron." the former smuggler went on and he laughed.

"So you guys have been putting together a chronology?" Sam interjected, bringing them back on track.

"Right, and it makes no sense. You should come see this." Daniel replied and Sam grumbled, starting to rise up off Cameron's chest, only for him to put a hand on her shoulder and pull her back down. She looked over and smiled at the look in his eyes. He reached over and took the comm out of her ear, holding it to his mouth.

"We'll be down in thirty, Jackson." he said. Sam lifted an eyebrow at him. "Make that an hour." She grinned and scooted off the bed, heading for the washroom and what promised to be a very pleasant bath. Cam tossed the comm onto the bed without bothering to wait for a reply and followed after her.

Sixty-two minutes later, a very relaxed Sam was slouching against Cameron in the high backed bench in Merlin's Library while she slipped another spoonful of blue jello into her mouth. Daniel had found a tall vertical writing board from somewhere and had pinned a large piece of paper to it with a time line running down the middle of it. At the bottom of the page was written the word 'NOW' while the top was cut off indistinctly with a dashed line. Notches spread along the line at various points with several clustered and braced as a unit with the mark 'Arthur's Court – c. late 5th cen. AD'. Included among them were smaller marks listed 'Battle of Ar Domûn' and 'Return of the Queen' and 'Journey to the Agate Seat'. Higher up the page was a mark labelled 'Merlin retrieves key from Muranis – c. 2nd cen. BCE'. Daniel was rubbing his bleary eyes while looking at the page and Vala was seated on a comfortable chair next to their bench, dozing lightly. Teal'c walked in with a ponytailed Valencia in tow. They each held padded staves and Valencia sported a light sheen of sweat. Sam saw Cameron smiling at each of them. As soon as they walked in, Vala's eyes shot open and she whipped her head around.

"Valencia!" she cried sniffing the air and the younger woman smiled, producing a shallow cloth-covered basket and handing it to the raven-haired woman. "Oh, you're a life saver!" she burbled and whipped the cloth off to reveal an assortment of fragrant breads and fruits.

"Still warm from Old Padraig's." Valencia declared and propped her staff up against a bookshelf as she found herself a seat on some steps. Cam reached his arm around Sam and touched his wrist, producing a pair of towels from the pocket dimension which he tossed to the young Camelot native and Teal'c, who had seated himself at a chair around the table. Daniel turned to face them all and was about to open his mouth when he blinked.

"Teal'c, Valencia, when did you get here?" Everyone laughed at him and he glared back and waved them away. "Whatever. This is what I was talking about earlier, Sam. All the stories place Merlin's _first_ setting off to Muranis at around the mid-point of the heyday of Arthur's Court. That's when all the stories referencing a band of warriors seem to come from too. And Galadia confirmed that the most recent biological activity on Muranis is at about this time as well." He tapped the end of his marker next to the cluster of notches near the center of the page "_However_, Merlin told us he took the Key from Muranis seven centuries before this visit." He underlined the top note with his marker. Cam pressed his comm stud.

"~Galadia, how confident are you of your biological particulate analysis from Muranis?~" he asked. Valencia smiled when she heard him, Sam knew she found it fascinating that they could all speak the language of Merlin and his ancestors.

"~There is a 0.032% chance that my analysis may be inaccurate by up to two years on either side of the estimate.~" Galadia replied in everyone's comm.

"Joseph and Mary, I'm less confident tomorrow is going to be a day ending in a 'Y'." Cam muttered and motioned for Daniel to continue.

"Right, so the chances that Galadia is wrong are vanishingly small." Daniel said while tapping the board with his finger. "Which puts Merlin's date for his retrieval of the key at odds with all the legends about when he travelled to Muranis." Cam snorted and Sam smiled slightly. Daniel glared at them. "What?"

"This is why you should go to bed early and get a proper night's rest like a good little boy, Jackson." Cam jibed and Sam slapped at his hand lightly with her spoon. Daniel's frown deepened and Vala joined in. "T-man, do the honours, would ya?" Teal'c stood up and walked to the board, taking the marker from the increasingly confused archaeologist. He put the point down at the notch marked 'NOW' and drew an arc up the page which curved back through the middle of the cluster of notches labelled as 'Arthur's Court'. He didn't stop there, instead continuing the line through to the other side to make another arc up the page to the notch at the top, then forming a hook through it and stopping the line with a nice little arrow. Daniel blinked at the timeline then stared at them with wide eyes.

"We have a DeLorean, Daniel." Sam said brightly.

* * *

Kariala, Trisecti 1422 AL (Lantean years after Exodus)

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" cried Cameron as he stepped up to her. "Who the Hell are these guys?" Sam shook her head in disbelief at the scene before her. She'd only arrived moments before Cam to find Ilemus on his haunches with his hands bound behind his back and a tall man holding him down with a hand on his shoulder while another couple of similarly dressed men glowered at them from off to the side. She turned to stare at the Stargate, lying flat on several load-bearing arms with a large silver spike rising from the black tiled floor through its center. A glance to her right revealed several triple-ended, lustrous silver panels which fanned out in an arc around the 'gate from one side of the room to the other, control consoles which were, of course, inert.

Behind the spiked Stargate she could see the length of Kariala's needle point extending out to the distant stars while Prinpare Domunis hung behind the mirrored hook which curved past the translucent walls of the jumper bay above their heads. She could now see the lines on the surface weren't cracks, but gaps between individual hexagonal panels. The reason the surface had appeared to ripple before was that each panel could move independently and were currently all pointing in different directions in their unpowered state. Some form of focusing device? Perhaps to bathe the city in sunlight?

A tall, dark-haired woman dressed in long robes, which darkened in hue from lavender at the neck to dark indigo at the hem, swept into the space formed by the angled silver panels from behind Ilemus and paused near him to look down into his face. She gave him a sneer before continuing on her way to stand and gaze out over the towers below and the hollow valley stretching out past them.

"~I must congratulate you and your fellow councillors, Ilemus.~" She chuckled mirthlessly for a moment and then was quiet for several long seconds. "~We knew it would be difficult, destroying these works of yours, but you surpassed yourselves.~"

"~We weren't leaving these behind, Anmorgias. The Indesta could have no reason to attack our facilities.~" Ilemus said softly as he shifted slightly from side to side. Sam watched as Cam frowned and moved towards the windows to look hard into the woman's face. Memorising it. Sam sighed softly.

"~You're a poor liar, Ilemus. You may not have been leaving these for the next evolution in Avalon, but you would have left them in Selerinus.~" She turned to look at Ilemus over her shoulder. "~We know that you seek ascension.~"

"~What was to happen in Selerinus was no longer a concern of the Indesta!~" Ilemus declared angrily, only for the man behind him to shake his shoulder hard. "~Thyilea is your home now, we went our separate ways for just this reason.~" Anmorgias laughed slightly and turned around, her flowing robes billowing softly as she clasped the fingers of her hands together at her waist.

"~Yes, you are right, my brethren have chosen to allow this stupidity to occur. The Children of Thyilea in Exile however, do not.~" She stepped forward towards Ilemus and lifted up his face to look down into his eyes.

"Liherri Thyla Exsultas." Cam repeated softly. "Jackson's gonna want to hear about this." Sam nodded, concentrating on what was happening ahead of her.

"~There will be a clean slate, Ilemus. We will brook no corruption of the experiment.~" Anmorgias breathed gently. "~Here or in _Lantica_.~" Ilemus frowned as she smiled. "~Oh, we'll allow you to pass on Atlantus I suppose, we don't have much of a choice in that regard anymore.~" She walked back towards the windows to look out over Kariala. "~However, Selenis is another matter.~" Sam looked over at the sound of several booted feet as men and women in dark purple uniforms, much like Ilemus' guard's attire, marched in with Artros, Larensera and a stumbling, doubled-over Jenavia in their grip. The three Alterans were forced to kneel down in front of Ilemus, facing Anmorgias and the spiked Stargate she stood behind. A tall man with jet black hair and a stately demeanour, which Sam found strangely familiar, approached her and whispered to her lightly. She frowned heavily at whatever he said and waved him away. She turned again to look beyond the transparent matrix. "~Medravus tells me you have put Muranis and Selenis beyond our reach. Again I must commend you. They do not have addresses we can dial, so you will tell me what I need to know to dial them.~"

"~Tell them nothing, Ilemus.~" said Artros through gritted teeth. For his trouble he received an elbow strike to the shoulders, which sent him sprawling. He grimaced in pain, but still managed to gasp out a further sentence. "~No matter what, understand?~" Sam glanced at the anguish evident on Ilemus' face as tears welled up in his eyes. Anmorgias sighed and turned around.

"~To be honest, I don't care if you tell me or not. If they are beyond _our_ reach then they will certainly be beyond the reach of whatever pathetic descendants follow you in this galaxy.~" she murmured while taking a rod which Medravus held proffered for her. "~Only... if you tell me now... then I will not have to do what I am about to do.~" She walked in front of each Alteran in turn and gazed down at them. She lifted Jenavia's head and smiled at her gently before letting it drop again. The young engineer was clearly at her limit of exhaustion and pain. Larensera glared fiercely at the dark-haired Indesta, who just smirked at her before moving on. She motioned for the man and woman behind Artros to lift him back up off the floor and her face lit up in a pleasant smile. "~My dear Artros, you cannot want me to do this, I mean, what about us? Do you really want to forget me?~" He growled at her in disgust as she ran a finger along his cheek. She stood up straight and looked at Ilemus dispassionately. "~You know where we are, Ilemus. You know what is still down on that world.~" She pointed up and out the windows at the planet hanging above them. "~I will strip them of everything they are and I will send them through the First Gate unless you tell me what I wish to know.~" Ilemus blanched in horror and shook his head. Artros snarled angrily while Larensera looked over at Jenavia as the young woman leant slightly in her direction. "~I am not a monster, I will make sure they arrive somewhere... civilised.~" She laughed for several moments before piercing Ilemus with a hard look.

Sam felt Cam sidle up to her and she almost slumped against him as his hand found its way around her waist. She turned to look at him and he shook his head sadly until she lifted a hand to her mouth and turned her head again to witness what was about to happen. Ilemus wanted them to see this.

"~I will tell you nothing.~" Ilemus whispered. Anmorgias held the baton at Larensera's temple and a bright flash of white light emerged from the end to surround her head. Jenavia screamed and Ilemus closed his eyes and hung his head. After a few moments the light dissipated, leaving Larensera blinking and looking around in fear and confusion. Ilemus took a long shuddering breath. "~I will tell you nothing.~" he repeated in an even lighter voice. Anmorgias frowned darkly and glanced at Jenavia, who was crying softly as she tried in vain to move closer to the soldier next to her. She then turned her gaze to Artros and steeled herself, turning at the waist to point the baton at him. He looked up at her and straightened his back as much as he could against the two who held him down.

"~I'm sorry, Artros.~" she breathed before the light enveloped his head and she turned away and held a hand up to her eyes. Ilemus shuddered and shook as tears rolled down his cheeks. "~Take him. I cannot bear to see the look in his eyes.~" Anmorgias ordered without turning. Her guards picked up the Praediae by the arms and led him out as he blinked stupidly at his surroundings. "~One last chance, Ilemus.~" she whispered.

"~Do it! You foul WITCH!~" Jenavia screamed at the top of her lungs. "~You can't hurt me anymore! DO IT!~" She tried to turn to face Ilemus, but her guards pushed her forwards again. "~Don't tell them anything, Ilemus! Do you hear me? If you tell them, I will never forgive you!~" Ilemus flinched at each and every word before rising up on his haunches and looking directly at Anmorgias' back. She turned to look at him over her shoulder.

"~I will tell you nothing.~" he declared in a steady voice. The Indesta frowned at him and pointed the baton at Jenavia. Never taking her eyes from Ilemus as the light skipped from the end of the rod to spin and whirl around the young Alteran's head. Ilemus watched it all without looking away, not even when Jenavia slumped forward and lay down on the ground with her wavy brown hair spilling over her face.

"~Take them.~" Anmorgias ordered as she handed the rod back to Medravus and swept out of the room. "~They have new lives ahead of them.~"

Sam buried her face in Cam's neck and wept as he stepped in front of her and pulled her into his arms.

* * *

Abandoned airfield near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Cameron sat off to the side of their staging area as Colonels Dixon and Reynolds briefed the SG teams on their plans. Captain Lewis was still typing away at Sam's laptop which he'd only let her have after making absolutely clear to her she should keep her nose out of the private stuff. The young redhead had seemed amused and he glared at her for it. He sat on a case leaning against the side of one of the vans with his arms crossed over the chest of his dress blues and his leg bouncing up and down like a steam engine's push-rod.

"Antsy?" Daniel asked as he and Vala walked up. Cam snorted at his friend while Vala sat down next to him on the weapons case and leant her head on his shoulder. Teal'c approached from the opposite direction to stand next to the linguist.

"Like you wouldn't believe. You owe me for this, Sam." he muttered for her benefit as she and Reynard were heading back to the cell to swipe her keycard in the reader to signal the control room and allay any suspicion. He frowned. "Don't roll your eyes." He heard a soft giggle in his ear and knew he'd been right.

"Okay, this is almost as disturbing as the silent communication thing." Daniel said with a cringe. Vala giggled.

"They've got to want to take her off-world, right?" Cam asked with a wave of his hand up over his head. "So why haven't they?" He brought his hand back down and bit into the knuckle of his thumb.

"Coordination." Teal'c offered. "They must coordinate their efforts with other parties, likely off-world."

"They might not have ready access to a ship and are trying to get one sent." Vala tried then shook her head. "No, they'd wait until they had one before even trying to snatch her."

"Unless they didn't have time." Daniel pointed out. They each glanced at him. "C'mon, guys, how much time have we actually spent on Earth this year?" Cam widened his eyes a moment in recognition of his point. He heard Sam grunting a little confirmation as well.

"There was an opportunity and they seized it," Teal'c added to Daniel's nod, "that is most astute, Daniel Jackson."

"So they don't have a ship... yet." Cam concluded to general agreement. "The imminent operation thing, though."

"The ship is likely already on its way, Colonel Mitchell, and has been for some time." Teal'c said and Cam nodded. "Under cloak through hyperspace to avoid any possible detection."

"I knew going dancing with politicians would be a bad idea." he muttered and Sam almost couldn't suppress a chortle in his ear, he heard a loud thump and winced. Sam must have tapped the bud. "Sorry, Sam."

"Colonels." Riley's call had everyone turning to look at her. "I've identified something that looks like it might be some sort of landing beacon. It just started sending out low frequency pulses."

"Where, Captain?" Cam asked as he stood up and walked over. She read some information off the laptop's screen then turned to another computer which had a satellite image of the airfield displayed on it. She pointed at a spot at the north end of the runway.

"Here, sir." she tapped her finger on the screen. "I don't think it's a coincidence it's right by this outbuilding." She moved her finger over to a single storey shed just off the runway itself.

"Underground tunnels." Cam muttered and she nodded. They all turned around when Sam's laptop beeped. Riley frowned and walked over.

"The interval between pulses is getting shorter." she muttered.

"A countdown?" asked Dixon.

"I think so, sir." she replied and sat down to start typing again. "We have four, maybe five minutes to continuous tone." she looked up and Cam cursed, looking at the map.

"We can't get a team that far away in four minutes. We have to breach now." Reynolds declared. Cam heard Sam's intake of breath.

"No." he ordered for her. "I promised Sam her chance and we only go when she says go." He looked around at the men and women clustered around the portable tables. "The intel she gets in the next five minutes could be crucial."

"Mitchell, we can't get guys there in time, that's at least a ten or twelve minute hike and according to the fox woman they got itty-bitty trains in those tunnels." Dixon growled. Cam should have known the spec ops veteran's heavily redacted time in French-speaking west Africa would count for something.

"_I_ can get there." he said, flashing the keys to the Fireblade. "Get your men in position, Dix, Reynolds. I will signal when Sam calls it."

"Crazy bastard." Dixon grumbled before turning around and nodding to Al Reynolds next to him. "Let's make sure we've got their asses covered." The leader of SG-3 nodded at both men and Cam turned to his friends.

"Go with them." he ordered and they nodded. Teal'c came to stand by him for a moment and gripped his upper arms. "I won't let them get away, T." The Jaffa bowed slightly and let him go. "SG teams, you are on the clock." Cam declared as he took a pair of wirecutters that someone shoved into his hands and slipped them into the strip of light. He walked toward the Honda and climbed on.

"Colonel?" called Captain Lewis as he turned the motorcycle's engine over. "I'll only take down their defenses when you give the order, sir. Don't cut the fence until then." He nodded and sped away down the road to the path he'd followed along the treeline, it was bumpy and _really_ dangerous on a sport bike, but he wasn't going to let her down.

* * *

Abandoned airfield near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Sam scratched lightly at the skin of her wrist around the plastic tie. She bit her lip at the idea of Cam speeding down a trail on a big 1000cc Fireblade. Those things were built for the track not the dirt. She steeled herself, reminding herself that Cam was a good rider, remembering the times they'd gone out on her '47 Indian Chief and his '71 Moto Guzzi California. He'd be there to cover her six when the time came. He'd promised her.

"I can't believe you're doing this." Reynard whispered from behind her as they walked down the corridor after getting off the small transit car which sped them through the tunnel between the bunker and the control tower. "We could have been long gone already." Sam chuckled.

"You have to understand something, Tanis. I'm not going to let them get away with this. And to do that I need as much information as I can get my hands on." she said over her shoulder with an edge of steel in her soft voice.

"You're crazy. We could have gotten away right after you broke out of your cell. Now we're right in the middle of them," she flicked at Sam's arm, "and you're tied up again." Sam stopped and turned around to face her, noting there weren't a lot of Lucian Alliance mercenaries around.

"Calm down, Reynard." She glared at the woman who seemed to be panicking slightly. Time on that prison colony really did seem to have changed her. "I'll get you out of this. So stick by me and do as I say." Tanis snorted and laughed.

"How can you say that?" she asked in a piercing whisper. "You're alone, tied up and I might not know where you're hiding that gun of yours, but I know it won't be enough against Tergali's men." Sam tilted her head to the side and cocked her hip out.

"I never said I was alone, or that the CZ 85 was the only gun I had." She turned around again and started walking, smiling when she heard Reynard only begin to follow her again after several moments.

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"I meant what I said in the car. Colonel Mitchell isn't dead." she said with a pointed look over her shoulder. Reynard looked at her with wide eyes and a slight gape of her mouth. They walked in to the control room at the base of the tower to see Tergali growling in frustration at one of his men.

"Find Ger'to already! He should have been back ages ago. He was right behind us." He waved away the man, who dashed off, and turned to face Sam. "Ah, Dr. Carter. I don't believe I've mentioned it yet, that is a lovely dress." He leered and she grimaced.

"Yes, it _was_. You owe me a new one." She turned to look over at Tanis. "We were having a wonderful evening until you guys showed up, and believe me, the night _wasn't_ over for me." She glared at Tergali and he laughed.

"Very good, Dr. Carter. I like your spirit. The spirit of the Tau'ri!" he declared as he sat down by a console with a large screen over it and waved his hand vaguely out in front of him. "Not like the rest of the people out there in the galaxy. Broken and frightened after centuries of enslavement at the hands of whoever held the biggest stick at the time." He leaned back and looked her up and down. "So tell me, how do you know me?" Sam shrugged.

"I see a lot of files crossing my desk." she replied indifferently. "I'm just a scientist, but all information could be vital when solving problems." He laughed.

"You're not just a scientist, Dr. Carter." He glanced over at a tech who wandered up and handed him a note. He nodded and the man walked off. "You're _the_ scientist. _Very_ valuable to my employer." He looked at her again. "And it wasn't that long ago you were a Colonel in your Air Force, no? I had to duck very quickly when you were shooting at my SUV." Sam shrugged again. "Well, I'll find out eventually. In the meantime my employer wants a word with you." He waved at the tech and the large screen behind him lit up to reveal a split screen with Masim on one side and a very familiar looking Aschen on the other.

"Oh, hello, Borren. How _very_ lovely to see you again." she growled and heard Cam growling in her ear as well.

"Major Carter." he greeted her dispassionately.

"Just Doctor will do, I retired." She sighed. "Maybe I should send out a galactic press release." She smirked again and decided she may as well go all out and channel Jack. "So how've you been? How's Mollem doing?" The Aschen tilted his head and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"He is dead, Dr. Carter." he intoned. "He was in the research facility we set up on Belsi tasked with researching the addresses we retrieved from the computer you gave us." Sam rolled her eyes.

"Now why did you go and do that for? How could you _not_ have figured out the addresses we gave you were bogus?" She shook her head in amazement. "I wasn't carrying a piece of paper with the Volian word for 'sterility' on it just for my amusement. We were on to you."

"We took precautions." Borren began. "We simply did not anticipate what you were capable of." She rolled her eyes at that.

"That's rich, coming from you." she muttered and looked over at Masim. "Do you know who you've gotten into bed with? What the Aschen do to other worlds?" Masim had seemed vaguely amused by the interplay he was witnessing up to that point.

"I know they don't do that anymore." Masim stated and Sam scoffed. "Oh, I assure you, Dr. Carter. My friends, the Aschen, are motivated by a higher calling now." She narrowed her eyes at him. "However that is not why we are interested in speaking with you."

"If you wanted to talk you could have just called, made an appointment." she said and he laughed.

"Yes, the Tau'ri spirit. You are right, Tergali. It is invigorating." He turned from looking down slightly to looking back at the center of the screen. "We will talk, Doctor, but after that we will work." She frowned. "I believe you know my daughter boarded an Ancient ship called Destiny several of your weeks ago. I have not heard from her since." Sam wasn't about to tell him anything about _that_. "I assure you, you will enjoy working with us to re-establish contact with Destiny. And when our work is done you will help the Aschen and their partners." Borren looked to the left slightly with a disapproving look.

"We will require your services, Dr. Carter." Borren explained in spite of his disapproval. "Destiny carries aboard it something very special. Something we have promised to retrieve." Sam's brain was working in ultra high gear and she nearly missed Cam's little comment.

"_Whoa, honey, I can hear you whirring from here. Just take it easy. Let me know when they cut comms and we'll hit 'em then._" She thanked fate and kismet and karma and everything else she could think of for sending her a man who could practically read her mind.

"The ship will be there shortly, Tergali. Get Dr. Carter aboard and make sure she's comfortable." Tergali nodded when a tech approached and whispered in his ear. Masim was about to sign off, but she didn't have everything she needed yet. She flicked her gaze from him to Borren and saw the Aschen was about to order his communications to be cut as well. She grimaced.

"So does this mean I'll get to meet one of the Indesta?" she asked, trying to hide the vague note of desperation in her voice. She was rewarded with Borren betraying as much emotion as she'd ever seen on the face of an Aschen, he grew even paler as his eyes widened and his mouth opened and closed soundlessly. Bonanza.

"Where have you heard that name?" he asked weakly and Sam shrugged. She then smiled when she heard Cam cheering nearly silently.

"_She shoots, she scores! And the crowd goes wild!_" She schooled her features as best she could.

"A question she can answer later at our leisure, Borren." Masim grumbled with a troubled look in his eyes. "Get her on that ship as soon as it touches down, Tergali." he ordered of his man.

"Yes, Masim, I have word it has already landed." Tergali turned to a technician and flicked his head and the screen went dark.

"Oh, I was enjoying that chat." she said and Cam was immediately calling orders into the radio. Almost instantly things started happening all around her. Men and women called out in surprise and ran to and from different stations.

"Tergali! The defense perimeters are going down one by one!" cried one of the techs from a console and the Lucian Alliance mercenary strode over.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded and he froze as he looked at a screen to see lights flashing from green to red in sequence all across a plan of the compound. "Sound the alert. We're being attacked! Contact Masim and tell him." The tech shrugged his shoulders.

"I can't, communications are down as well." Tergali glared at him in disbelief before turning around and striding over to Sam. He signalled for the man by the door behind them, the one whose nose she'd broken earlier that night.

"Yesta, Reynard, take her to the Terminal, we're leaving." Sam saw the man Tergali had sent off earlier in search of the Jaffa, returning with a shrug of his shoulders for his boss. Tergali cursed. "The Tau'ri must have followed and captured Ger'to and made him talk." Sam laughed when both the men grabbed her by the arms and began to muscle her out the door.

"I told you,Tergali, Colonel Mitchell isn't dead." She pierced him with a glare and a fierce grin. The mercenary growled and stalked away ahead of them all. She locked her eyes on Reynard and gave her a look trying to tell the woman to calm down. The other woman nodded slightly while making a show of pointing the zat at her.

"Unless your Colonel Mitchell can fly he'll never get from the main buildings to the Terminal before we will." called out Tergali as they hurried back to the tunnel and climbed aboard one of the small transit cars which sped off along its tracks.


	9. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**The Patience of Kings – Epilogue**

Samantha Carter's house, Colorado Springs, December 2005

Cameron's eyes opened blearily and he blinked in the unfamiliar light. Groaning slightly, he looked down at the plaid blanket covering his chest and legs as he lay on a couch. Sam's couch. Oh, right. She made him spend the night after he drove her home. He looked to the side after stretching a little and froze as he saw Sam sitting on her coffee table in her dressing gown. She looked at him sadly as she leant her forearms on her knees and clasped her hands in front of her.

"Mornin', Sam." he murmured as he sagged slightly on the couch then swung his legs out to sit up and scrub at his face.

"Cameron, I was up most of the night." she muttered and he looked up in a bit of a worry.

"Sam, I didn't mean for you to-" he stopped when Sam reached over and put her fingers over his lips.

"Let me finish." She brought her hand back to her lap. "I was up because I realised something after you'd gone to sleep." He looked at her in confusion. "Twelve years ago, Cameron. You came to see me. You came to Washington just before you went home because you wanted to talk to me. It was about this, wasn't it?" she asked. Cam watched her eyes as her brows tightened and he nodded slowly. "Oh, Cameron!" she cried. "How can you not have hated me?" He shook his head and reached for her hands. "You came to me at the worst time in your life, and I slapped you across the face because you told me a truth I didn't want to hear!" She pulled a hand from his grasp and raised it to run her fingers across his cheek.

"You didn't know." he breathed and she shook her head.

"I could see you weren't yourself. I could see it in your eyes and I still let Jonas work me over." She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw tight. "You know what he said? Well, not what he said, what he implied." She ran her hand through her hair and looked into his eyes. "He made me think you'd done something to get yourself put up for review and reassignment." She laughed bitterly. "He twisted everything, he pulled it all out of context and had me doubting you. _You_! He had me doubting my dearest friend and I didn't speak to you again for nearly four years, Cameron." She covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes welled up in sudden tears. "And the worst thing, Cam..." She closed her eyes for several moments until she set her jaw. When she opened her eyes again they had turned stony. "What I can't forgive..." She shook her head. "If he weren't dead already, Cameron, I'd kill him myself. I swear I would." She reached out and touched his cheek once more. "He made me doubt you when you needed me the most."

"Sam..." He reached up and took her hand in his. "Don't blame yourself. Hell, it was my fault anyway." Her eyes widened as she looked at him. "I lost it when I saw him. When I saw him with you." She shook her head. "I just needed to get out."

"Cameron, no. You can't say that. You weren't in a good place." She got up and spun around to sit next to him on the couch. "And I should never have doubted you." She looked down at her hands in her lap. "I _shouldn't_ have doubted you." Cameron took her hands in his. "After I split with Jonas, and it was because he was everything you said he was and more, believe me... I hated what I did, I hated..." She closed her eyes and Cam put an arm around her shoulder. "Why the Hell are you comforting me when I should be comforting you?"

"Sam, the fact you didn't push me away yesterday when you heard... that was all I needed." he breathed and she shook her head as she laid it on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Cameron. I'm so sorry." she whispered as he laid his cheek against the top of her head. They sat in silence on her couch for several minutes before Cameron broke the stillness.

"You know... I'm glad you slapped me that day." he said softly. Sam raised her head from his shoulder and looked at him in surprise. "Well, usually, you lead with a right cross." he explained as he held up a hand to touch his nose. She blinked several times before covering her mouth as she began laughing.

* * *

Cameron Mitchell's house, Colorado Springs, Christmas Eve 2009

Sam smiled broadly as the door opened to reveal Cameron's happy grin. He bid her enter and when the door closed she pressed herself against him and kissed him hard. He certainly made no protest, hooking an arm around her shoulder while his other hand moved through her sandy brown hair. She wrapped her hands around his waist and spread her fingers wide against his back, he backed up slowly and she broke the kiss to take a deep breath and look into his blue eyes as she moved forward while still in his arms. Glancing over his shoulder she could see his kitchen through a door and figured he was guiding them there by memory, confirmed when his lips found hers again while his steps never faltered. He flicked at her lower lip with his tongue and she let him inside, deepening the kiss herself, tasting him and... frowning slightly... wine sauce? She pulled back and turned her head, noticing he was actually holding a wooden spoon in his hand over her shoulder. She grinned and buried her face in his neck, finding his pulse point and taking a quick bite. He chuckled and she felt the vibrations through her chest pressed tightly against his. They came to a stop as his back met the counter of the island in his kitchen.

"What are you making me?" she asked softly, looking at the pan simmering away on the hob and taking in the sight of the oven beyond it with a couple of roasting dishes inside.

"Hmm, rack of lamb with a red wine sauce, roasted baby potatoes with rosemary and thyme, steamed green beans, carrots and broccoli." he listed while counting off on his fingers. Sam's mouth was watering already and she pressed her forehead against his shoulder. "It'll be done in twenty. How about you go pour yourself a glass of wine and I'll call you when it's ready." She smiled and nodded, kissing him tenderly and moving into the dining room where she found a bottle of red wine, decanted and breathing on the table. Before she poured herself a glass she remembered she still had her coat on and shrugged it off.

"Can I just leave my coat in the living room, sweetie?" she asked, moving towards the doors opposite from the kitchen. He called back an assent and she stepped in, tossing her jacket over the back of a recliner. She glanced over the room as she let her fingers run over the back of the chair. She'd been to Cam's place many times over the last four and a half years, he'd always been a little messy. He kept his games consoles spread out on a low table next to the wall under the big screen, flat panel television and there was always a large pile of games or DVDs lying around it too. He was such a guy, at least in this room. This was in complete contrast with his sparklingly clean kitchen. Even with several pans and roasts going everything seemed to be under his control in there, while the living room looked very _lived in_. She smiled in recollection of all the movie nights they'd spent here, team nights and now the private ones they'd started for just the two of them. She walked over to his media shelf and ran a finger over the spines of his movie and TV show collection. She had impossible memories of watching a lot of these during their time on Odyssey, something she was slowly learning to come to terms with, the scientist in her would still rebel against the notion unless she somehow figured out how it had all happened, she shook her head. There were many newer titles, released since that time which she still had to watch. She was looking forward to it. She chuckled to herself, remembering how she had usually tried to avoid the movie nights when they'd first started them. Eventually she got used to them, then started looking forward to them. Now she was even enjoying some girls' movie nights with Vala, Carolyn and Cassie, when she was visiting from Nevada. She smiled.

She turned her head and walked over to his book shelf, running her hands over his collection of science fiction novels and other books. She laughed when she spotted Daniel's books high up on the top shelf and took one of them down to see the archaeologist's goofy picture on the back sleeve. She reached up again to put it back, but spotted something behind the books at the back of the shelf. Pulling some more books down revealed a small bundle of envelopes. Oh, she shouldn't. She really, really shouldn't. She bit her lower lip and picked up the bundle to see who the letters were from. She frowned when she saw that they weren't letters _to_ Cameron at all. She leafed through the unsealed envelopes to note all of them had her name on them, with her various addresses from down the march of time scrawled on them in Cam's bold hand. She glanced up and looked towards the kitchen for a moment before turning to sit in the chair by the computer desk. She spread the envelopes out a bit and picked one up at random.

Her address in D.C. was scrawled across the envelope and she turned it over to see Cam's contact information from Kadena. This letter must be over fifteen years old. She laid it back down and got up to fish in her coat for her glasses, putting them on she walked back and sat down again. Taking up the letter once more, she lifted the fold and slipped several sheets of letter paper out to see Cam's handwriting filling up a side of each sheet. It started off in a standard way, though when she thought back to this time in their relationship it was when they hadn't been speaking to each other. She closed her eyes and sighed, she really didn't want to remember it, not her time with Jonas Hanson. However, his letter didn't seem to make a mention of it, he just wrote about the happenings on base, about the new friends he'd made and about the sights he'd already visited on Okinawa. How he wanted to take her to see all the temples, gusuku fortresses and the lion statues called 'shiisaa' which seemed to be everywhere, she smiled slightly with a glance to the kitchen again, thinking she would like to travel with him more. He mentioned how he had started learning Japanese and was learning how Okinawan culture was very distinct from mainland Japan.

As the letter progressed it began to get a lot more personal, he wrote about his hopes and dreams and eventually moved on to his feelings for her. Sam's eyes widened slightly as he began recounting times they'd been together and how he'd felt during them and she lifted a hand to cover her mouth as he eventually admitted he loved her. The letter didn't get much beyond that and Sam wondered why. She picked up another of the envelopes and pulled the letter out, reading more of his travels, this time in mainland Japan and some visits he'd made in Korea when his patrols had him forward deployed to air bases on the peninsula for a few weeks at a time. She kept reading and again the letter progressed to recollection of his memories of her and of his feelings for her and again stopped not long after an admission that he had been in love with her since the Academy. Her fingers were shaking slightly as she picked up another letter and skipped forward to the last page to again find a similar confession which led to the letter trailing off unfinished. She closed her eyes and held the letter to her chest as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Sam? Are you okay, baby?" his soft voice startled her and she looked up from the chair to see him walking towards her and taking in the sight of the letters spread out on his computer table. She closed her eyes and waited for his anger to find voice at her invasion of his privacy. As the protracted silence continued she eventually spoke up herself.

"I'm sorry, Cameron, I was snooping and I just couldn't stop myself-" she began in apology only to be surprised when his fingertips gently brushed against her cheek, forcing her to open her eyes and look up at him.

"I suppose now you can see what I meant that time when I said my letters always went too far." he said with a faintly embarrassed smile. She looked down at the sheet in her hand and nodded when she remembered their reconciliation before she travelled to join the SGC and the few days they'd spent together getting reacquainted. Her brows tightened when she realised she still lived in that same house he'd helped her find. She looked up at him and held up the letter to him.

"Why did you never mail them?" she asked softly. "We weren't in the same chain-of-command, we could have been together. We could have..." she trailed off at the sad look in his eyes and she realised how unlikely that would have been at the time, even after their reconciliation he was still assigned to a base on the other side of the world from her. She looked down and saw her fingers were still trembling slightly. "I wish we had been braver, Cameron." He knelt down in front of her and slipped the papers from her grasp and laid them back on the table. He took her fingers in his and kissed them gently.

"So do I." he breathed softly as she lifted one of her hands to stroke at his cheek, then leaned forward to kiss him. She pulled back to pierce him with a serious look, a fiery gaze filled with command.

"From now on, no more regrets, no more hesitation. Understood?" she ordered and he smiled gently with a nod.

"Yes, ma'am." His smile had her mesmerised for several moments until he reached up and took her glasses off and laid them down on the desk. He stood up and took her hand in his. "Come, let me feed you." She grinned and followed behind him eagerly. "Tomorrow is a special day."

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 8,097 days relative

Sam watched Daniel from the door of the Asgard Database room, how he poured over the runes and other alien texts as they floated and scrolled in the semi-darkness. She nearly turned back, but she had to tell someone, she had to or her heart would crush itself inside her chest with the guilt.

"Hey." she said softly, hesitantly.

"Hey." he replied without turning around, he wouldn't turn from his work just to greet one of them. She stepped inside and rubbed one of her sleeves with a hand before crossing her arms together as she reached the control podium.

"Why do you do it? Knowing everything you learn is going to die with you?" she asked him. A question she'd been wrestling with for over two decades. Wrestling with it because it was a loaded question. She wasn't talking just about the knowledge he'd learned from the database, or the knowledge she'd learned from the Core. She was talking about the knowledge they'd lived through. Knowing the love he and Vala shared, the love she and Cam shared. She'd found her complement that first day at the Academy, but she'd only accepted that's what he was after being stuck on this ship. And she'd been working so hard all this time at something that would erase it. Daniel turned to her with a slight smile, he paused a moment before walking towards her as he spoke.

"I know you guys all think I'm crazy, but…the truth is, if I stop, I'll _go_ crazy." He picked up one of the Asgard stones from the podium and held it in his hand, glancing down at it. "Besides, _you_ haven't given up." She turned away for a moment.

"Yes, I have." she breathed. She turned to face him and saw the sadness in his eyes as he watched her. He sighed and glanced down at the control pedestal and laid the stone back on its surface.

"Sam, you don't want to be talking to me about-" he began only to stop at her vehement head shake. She lifted a hand to her furrowed brow and brushed her fingers against the skin. "Why don't you want-"

"Twenty years today." she whispered hoarsely. Emotion had loaded her voice so much she could barely breathe. "Two decades I've kept him waiting." She swallowed at the lump in her throat as she looked up for a moment. "Twenty years since I went to his quarters and found him standing in the wreckage of his life, holding on to the tattered remains of his pride..." She held a hand up to her mouth. "And he managed somehow... to gather up that pride and... tell me... and I ran." Daniel stood at her side with a hand on her arm. "I ran from him, but he waited. He waited so patiently for me to go back to him when I was ready. And I did, in time. I... accepted him for what he's always been to me deep down." She looked up into her friend's eyes. "He's my heart." she managed to choke out with a shuddering breath before she had to look away. "It was for him, Daniel, only him. I've been working all this time, just for him." Daniel frowned at her slightly. "I'm sorry, Daniel, I'm so sorry." He shook his head and brought her into his arms.

"Sam, what are you talking about?" he asked softly.

"He's been so patient, Daniel, he's the only one I've been working to save, but I can't anymore. I can't do it. Twenty years and I can't do it." She screwed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. "I destroyed him the day I switched on this field, Daniel. I locked away the greater part of his soul where he can't reach it, and for two years he drove himself to despair thinking I didn't... wouldn't... couldn't love him as he loved me." She looked up again at the archaeologist who watched her with eyes reflecting her own anguish. "And I ran!" she cried out in hatred of herself. "He told me he loved me and instead of telling him I felt the same, I ran!" She struggled out of Daniel's embrace and walked to the wall to slump down to the floor. "And I _did_ feel the same, Daniel." she said as she looked up at him with watery eyes. She looked away for a long moment as he slowly got down on one knee in front of her, he grunted at the pain in his joints, but reached out to lift her head.

"Sam, he doesn't doubt your love." he whispered and she shook her head. She knew that. That's not why she felt so guilty.

"I don't deserve his love, his patience." she admitted. "Twenty years today, for twenty years Cameron has been my rock. He set his mind and heart and soul and since that day he's just strived to better himself and he's flourished." She looked up at Daniel and she couldn't suppress the pride as she spoke. "He's learned so much. He knows far more about the Asgard power core than I do now, he knows more about the hardware of the Asgard systems and he's learned so much from you as well." She blinked rapidly. "Because he's been waiting for me. He's been waiting for me to set him free again." She looked up and Daniel ran his hand across her cheek and over her hair. "But I can't. I don't know how." She grimaced as the pain in her heart grew acute. "And a part of me doesn't want to, because in here I have him and out there I won't." Daniel's hand dropped down from her hair to hang at his side. She shook her head ruefully and stood up, determined to get away, but the archaeologist was faster. He took a hold of her shoulders and held her against the wall.

"You don't mean that, Sam. I know you don't." he said softly and she shook her head. "We all believe in you. Cameron most of all." She looked at him as if he'd struck her. "You don't want to tell him you can't do it, I understand. So I will. I'll tell him for you." She grimaced, but nodded and he let her go.

An hour later she heard him entering their quarters as she looked out the viewport. These had been just 'his' quarters twenty years ago. It had been 'theirs' for most of the years since. And she didn't deserve that. She closed her eyes, unwilling to see the look in his eyes. She wrapped her arms around herself and waited in silence. She flinched when she felt his fingers coming into contact with her shoulder. She was surprised though, by the softness of his touch. His hand moved down her back and around her waist and his other hand touched her opposite shoulder, only for it to drift forward across her chest to pull her back against him. She began to cry immediately when his lips touched the skin of her neck, as gentle as a feather and so much warmer. He didn't say anything. She wept and clutched at his arm over her heart with her hands and he said nothing. She turned and buried her face in his neck and he said nothing. She drowned in his love and he said nothing.

As her knees gave way he picked her up and carried her to their bed, laying her down gently and sitting at the edge of it as he looked down at her. She began crying again when she saw his eyes. When he touched her cheek with his fingers to wipe away her tears they were just replaced by more. When he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers she sobbed and reached up to cup the back of his head tightly. He kissed her deeply, using the gentleness and intensity of his kisses to draw her love for him to the surface and lay it alongside his love for her. So she could see them together. So she could know, in the deepest recesses of her soul, that they were the same thing. A single thing, in two parts. And with his kisses he told her what they both knew mere words could never convey. That he would wait. He would wait patiently. He would wait forever. He would wait for her. Not because she could set him free, but because she already had.

* * *

Abandoned airfield near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Sam was shoved unceremoniously from behind as she walked barefoot out of the grandly-named-for-a-rusting-shack Terminal. She used that as cover to reach into the pocket dimension and slip out a combat knife which she used to start cutting the plastic tie around her wrists. In the distance she could hear weapons fire and explosions coming from the main buildings. She also heard Cam talking quietly into his radio.

"_I have a twenty on Carter. Awaiting take-down order._" She then heard him grumble angrily when she made a hand signal down by her waist after she paused momentarily from cutting through her bindings. She knew he wouldn't like it, but she wanted Tergali alive.

"You know, Tergali," she began jovially, "you made a few mistakes tonight. Want to know what they were?" The mercenary just grunted as he walked towards the runway. "Your first mistake was trashing Colonel Mitchell's Mustang. He loved that car." Tergali sent her a glare over his shoulder. "He might not have hurt you too badly if you'd left it at that, but you see, Cameron is my fiancé," she paused wondering if Tergali knew any French, "it means we're engaged to be married, and you had to go and cut me." She pushed her left arm and its bandage forward in the grip of one of her captors and smiled when she heard Cam growling.

"_The things I do for you, Sam._" he breathed.

"That was your second mistake, but don't worry, he's not going to kill you." she said with an evil grin.

"Be quiet, Doctor. Your _fiancé_ will never reach us in time." Tergali muttered, clearly upset about what was happening in the distance.

"Your third mistake was not binding my hands behind my back," Sam carried on as if Tergali hadn't spoken, "but that's just a general thing and, to be honest, wouldn't have made much of a difference. Everybody makes that mistake so you shouldn't feel too badly about it. Your fourth mistake was a _real_ doozy though. You shouldn't have left me alone in a cell without any monitoring or recording equipment." She shook her head when Tergali whirled about. She could tell Tanis, who had been walking off to the side of the man on her left, had stopped in her tracks as she spoke and had fallen back several paces from the main group. Tergali flicked his glance from Sam to Reynard, surely wondering what her comment meant. Sam smiled when she saw the Tel'tak decloaking behind the mercenary in the near distance, it's side door wide open. "I can't let you leave, Tergali."

She let the plastic tie she'd sliced through fall to the ground and the mercenary's eyes opened wide in alarm. She raised both elbows in a move neither of her keepers expected her to be able to make and clocked them both on the chin, causing them to stumble back. She then reached for her wrist, slipping the combat knife back inside the strip of light as it formed, then producing an FIM-92F Stinger from out of nowhere which she raised to her shoulder as she crouched down onto one knee. She heard a loud crack and blood sprayed out from Tergali's left thigh as he was reaching for his belt, he collapsed to the side in pain as she sighted down the end of the missile-launcher and fired at the cargo ship's entryway off in the distance. She heard Reynard firing her zats, presumably at Tergali's men, as she let the spent launcher drop from her hands and reached for her wrist again while she stood up. She pulled her hand away from the friendship bracelets and along with it came the pistol grip of an M870 combat shotgun, which she let swing down into her cupped palm as she looked down at Tergali and pulled back the pump-action slide.

The Tel'tak exploded in a huge fireball, lighting up the night sky as a rush of superheated air blew past them. Sam narrowed her eyes against the flash and the blast wave and walked slowly towards the mercenary when it was past. He was crying out in pain and clutching at his thigh and Sam kicked his gun away with a flick of her left foot through the slit of her gown. She tapped the barrel of her shotgun against Tergali's cheek. He instantly froze and looked up fearfully as she backed up a step. Sam watched him quietly for several moments as she felt Cam approaching from the side of the runway opposite the Terminal. He had his HK G36K propped up against the shoulder of his dress blues and picked his way through the debris lit up by the glow of the burning carcass of Tergali's ship while slowly unbuttoning his jacket.

Sam looked over at Reynard and flicked her head towards Tergali, indicating she should tie him up. The woman looked slightly shaken, but recovered quickly and produced more plastic ties from a pocket in her trousers, which she used to bind Tergali's men and the mercenary himself. She then started wrapping up his leg wound with a long roll of bandage Sam tossed her way. Tergali didn't seem to know what to look at, the woman he'd thought worked for him, but was now trussing him up like a prize steer, or the woman he was so sure had been his prisoner, but was now watching him like a blue-clad angel of death, bearing weapons she pulled out of thin air, or the stalking predator with a chest full of ribbons and medals he'd been so sure was dead, but was now glaring at him as if he was one sudden movement away from tearing his throat open with his bare hands.

"All these mistakes of yours, Tergali," Sam tilted her head as Cam came to stand next to her, "they all hang off one larger mistake, your _zeroth_ mistake, if you will." She glanced at Cam as he touched the small of her back protectively and kissed her on the temple. He handed her his gun, and looped her rings on their chain over his head and re-clasped it around her neck. He then shrugged off his jacket and gently draped it over her shoulders before taking his weapon back. Sam tossed her hair into place with a flick of her hand and kissed him softly before she returned her gaze to the Lucian Alliance man. "You picked the wrong couple to mess with."

* * *

Stargate Command, September 2010

Jack stared down at the report in his hands as he leaned back in the chair next to General Landry's at the head of the briefing room table. His eyebrows would move up his forehead from time to time or draw down in a slight frown, and his lips would quirk in any one of a thousand different expressions. He blinked slightly as he looked up and Cam shifted slightly under his gaze.

"It was just supposed to be a party, Mitchell. What the Hell?" Jack grumbled tossing the report on the table. "Eat. Drink. Dance. Kiss the girl, no offense." he said, looking at Sam, she rolled her eyes. "Instead, Carter gets kidnapped by the Lucian Alliance, is thirty seconds from being whisked off-world where she was going to be brainwashed and put to work _against_ us, and to top it all off, damned _Borin'_ is in on this." He paused for a moment. "I'm trying not to mention the whole Tanis Reynard thing either."

"To be fair, sir, the eating, drinking, dancing and kissing the girl parts of the evening were going really well." Cam offered and Vala laughed out loud before clamping a hand over her mouth at General Landry's glare.

"Also, I really _wasn't_ thirty seconds away from being taken off-world, sir." Sam pointed out. Jack just grunted. "And it was my idea to stay and gather intel."

"Yeah, remind me to have some serious words with you about that later on, Carter." Jack muttered darkly. She frowned at him.

"Look at it this way, Jack." Daniel began with a slight frown. "We rolled up a Lucian Alliance operation on Earth, gathered valuable insight into the euphemisms used by Masim and Borren during their meetings, not to mention intel on their actual goals. _And_," he held a finger up, "we have a direct link between the Aschen and the Indesta." Jack glared at the linguist.

"Oh, you're just loving that, aren't you, Daniel?" he groused as Daniel tilted his head from side to side with a shrug.

"We took the Lucian Alliance mercenaries completely unaware, O'Neill," Teal'c intoned from his seat next to Cam, "we captured many of them including their leader, at the cost of only minor casualties to our teams." He ended his recitation by glancing at Jack with a raised eyebrow.

"And Sam's fabulous dress." Vala added as she sat in between Jack and Daniel with her elbow propped on the table and her chin cupped in her hand.

"And my Mustang." Cam muttered dejectedly as he rested his still-aching forehead on an arm. Sam rubbed his back gently. Jack grumbled and groused as he leaned back in his chair.

"Jack, they're right." Landry said simply with a lift of his eyebrows. O'Neill glared at him and leaned forward in his chair again.

"I'll get you a new Mustang, Mitchell, and a new dress for you, Carter." he tapped his fingers on the table and turned his chair as if to get up.

"Jack." Daniel called slowly and O'Neill turned his chair to face him.

"Daniel." he said equally slowly.

"We're right, Jack." the linguist said simply.

"Also, sir," Cam said, looking up with a raised finger, "Sam wants us to look at GTs." Daniel and Jack turned to glare at him while Sam slapped his back with her mouth slightly agape. "I'm just sayin'." he muttered in his defense.

"You can't possibly want to do this, Daniel." Jack cried after Vala had stopped her giggling and they returned to the main topic the General was so desperate to dance around.

"Not really, no, but we have to do it, Jack." Daniel replied.

"It's the only way, sir." Sam said as O'Neill turned pleading eyes her way. "Only the Merlin in the past knows where he put-"

"Or to whom he gave." Daniel interjected, to which Sam nodded.

"Or to whom he gave Muranis' part of the Clava Thessara Infinitas." she finished. "And only a Muranis that isn't cracking under the strain of existing in eleven dimensions can tell us how to find Kariala."

"This is crazy." Jack declared. "And not Crazy Awesome either, Mitchell." He pointed in warning at Cameron. "Flying your damaged F302 into the path of an Al'kesh's guns and pulling off a Kulbit to save the day at the last second... Crazy Awesome. Dropping out of hyperspace a hundred kilometers above the surface of the Earth in the hopes of averting a biological catastrophe..." he tilted his hand from side to side, "maybe Crazy Awesome. Going back in time fifteen hundred years to find a possibly half-crazy Ancient with a habit of pissing off ascended beings... _not_ Crazy Awesome."

"General, we know Hypraxia can send us back from the past." Vala prompted. "We have examples of entries from Merlin's Library that speak of him using 'the Pillar of Heaven in the land of Hypraxia Korvalis' to travel back and forth through time."

"Not in so many words, but it's clear from context what's going on." Daniel elaborated then flinched when Vala gave him a smack. Jack took the opportunity to look at Sam pointedly.

"How can _you_ of all people, agree with this?" he demanded and Cam felt her stiffen a little as she sat next to him with her hand still on his back. He frowned slightly. "What about mucking up the timestream and all that jazz?"

"Sir, I think Cameron and Daniel are right." she explained in a low voice. "I think we _are_ the historical figures Merlin says we are. Anything we do in the past, as such, is already history." She shrugged and Cam sat up and took her hand under the table after she slipped it from behind him. Jack turned to Teal'c with a bright smile.

"Teal'c... big guy... good buddy..." Jack frowned when the only response he received from the Jaffa was an impassive stare. "I thought we were friends, man."

"We are indeed good friends, O'Neill." Teal'c said with a small bow and a slight smile on his lips. Jack growled and turned to Landry.

"Hank, you're with me on this, right? This is crazy, right?" he asked.

"It's the craziest thing I've ever heard of, Jack." Landry said and O'Neill motioned at the commander of the SGC in vindication. "But no matter how crazy and stupid it is, and it is both of those in spades, they're right." All the members of SG-1 leaned forward slightly and looked intently at Jack. He glared at all of them in turn and looked at Landry for several long seconds.

"Oh, for crying out loud! Fine! Bon voyage! Hasta luego! Have fun! Bring me a souvenir from the Dark Ages! Crazy-ass freaks." he ranted as he stood up with Cam quick to follow suit. "What the Hell am I gonna tell the IOA, huh? Answer me that! No! What the Hell am I gonna tell the President?" He walked over to the stairs leading down to the control room and leaned over the railing. "Walter! This place is full of crazy people!"

"Yes, sir." acknowledged the Chief Master Sergeant's voice. Cam couldn't really begrudge him that. He sat down and leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Man's got a point." he said as Sam raised a hand to caress his cheek.

* * *

To be continued in 'Queen and Soldier'


End file.
